Russian plane crash: ‘unusual sounds’ in cockpit

Only an external impact could have caused a Russian plane to dive into the Egyptian desert, killing all 224 people on board, Metrojet airline officials have said. All 217 passengers and seven crew members on board were confirmed dead in what has become Russia’s greatest civil aviation catastrophe in history.

“There is much work to be done to study the debris of the aircraft and the data of the flight recorders”, the chief of the Russian aviation agency, Aleksand Neradko, told Rossiya 24 news channel.

The Airbus A321-200 that crashed Saturday was built more than 18 years ago and changed several operators before entering Metrojet’s fleet in 2012.

The Russian airline has said the Airbus 321 came down due to “external” factors and that “no technical failures” could account for its apparent break-up in mid-air.

“For instance, if an aircraft were to hit a few ridge on the ground, this could cause the plane to break into halves”.

Although a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down from an altitude of 33,000 feet over Ukraine on July 17, 2014, presumably by separatist militants armed with sophisticated Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles, the Sinai militants aren’t known to possess armaments capable of such an attack.

“This is one way to damage the stability and security of Egypt and the image of Egypt”, he said.

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said terrorism was “unlikely” but said he would not rule it out.

They said that left two possibilities – a technical fault that caused the plane to disintegrate, or an explosion caused by a bomb smuggled on board.

In his first public appearance since the crash, Putin described it as an “enormous tragedy” and said his thoughts are with the families of the victims. The state of a few of the bodies retrieved from the crash site could suggest an on-board explosion, Russia’s state news agency reported, citing an anonymous Egyptian medical official.

Additionally, 140 bodies and more than 100 body parts were transported by two planes to St. Petersburg, with a third to follow Tuesday night.

“We don’t have any direct evidence of any terrorist involvement yet”.

The same person added “there is no evidence a missile of any kind brought down the plane”.

The Egyptian military said militants in Sinai have shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft weapons that shoot only as high as 14,000 feet, far short of the more than 30,000 feet at which Flight 9268 was flying when it dropped off radar.

Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations employees carry hand-barrows preparing to load the bodies of the victims from the ministry’s plane in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, November 2, 2015.

Egypt’s aviation ministry said Tuesday there was no proof the plane broke up while in midair and that no distress call was received from the pilot before the crash.