United Kingdom warns of airport security overhaul

Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the halt to flights after Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s FSB security service, recommended Russia suspend all passenger flights to Egypt until it knew exactly what caused the crash.

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed it down the plane, without explaining how, saying it was retaliation for Russian air strikes in Syria.

If, as both United Kingdom and USA intelligence now strongly suspect, an IS bomb did cause the A321 Airbus to crash, killing 224 people, it would be extremely damaging for President Putin, who recently committed Russian forces to combat operations against IS in Syria.

As part of the crisis response, the Federal Tourism Agency said its representatives would be dispatched to Cairo, Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada to help tourists.

Egyptian authorities are preventing camera crews from foreign media from filming inside the Sharm el-Sheikh airport, along the city’s main tourist strip in Naama Bay, or other public areas.

One of the black boxes showed that the plane suffered “a violent, sudden” end, a source close to the case in Paris told AFP.

US and British officials have cited intelligence reports as indicating that the Russian flight from the Sinai resort town to St. Petersburg was brought down on October 31 by a bomb on board.

“When are we going home?” one irate tourist shouted at British Ambassador John Casson when he appeared in the departure hall trying to reassure beleaguered travelers.

Egypt’s past calls for assistance and coordination on terrorism issues from “the countries that are now facing the danger” had not been dealt with seriously, Sameh Shoukry told a news conference. Western officials believe it was possibly brought down by a bomb after taking off from Sharm al-Sheikh on October 31. The statement bolstered US and British suspicions that the plane was brought down by a bomb.

Joining a string of airlines in avoiding Sharm el-Sheikh, the Lufthansa Group announced its subsidiary Eurowings would halt flights between Germany and the Red Sea resort, while Turkish Airlines also cancelled two flights. A crackdown on Islamists and a series of militant attacks on security buildings and checkpoints, mainly in the restive Sinai Peninsula, have followed Morsi’s ouster.

But Russian and Egyptian authorities pushed back Thursday on suggestions that a bomb brought down Metrojet Flight 9268 over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, saying there’s no evidence yet to support that theory.

Egypt, which depends on tourism as a crucial source of revenue, has said there was no evidence that a bomb was to blame.

Egyptian Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said only eight of 29 flights would take off because the airport could not cope with all the luggage left behind.

London approved the resumption of British flights to Sinai starting Friday and planned a wave of flights to retrieve its stranded nationals, but it banned passengers from checking luggage on the flights.

Nicky Bull, a human resources manager, said she thought many people would “question whether they ever want to go to Egypt again”. The Russian Emergencies Ministry also said it would send planes to Egypt to bring back the checked baggage of Russian tourists who were forced to leave their suitcases behind.

Passengers were told their luggage would be flown back to Britain separately and returned to them around seven to 10 days later, and that they would be permitted to take just five kilograms of hand luggage on the 19 passenger-carrying flights expected to depart on Friday.