A Russian plane carrying more than 200 passengers from the
Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh has crashed in central Sinai with most of
those on board feared dead.
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The Russian airline Kogalymavia’s Airbus A321 with a
tail number of EI-ETJ on an airstrip of Moscow’s Domodedovo international
airport. Photograph: Marina Lystseva/Itar-Tass/Corbis
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The jet, operated by the Russian company Kogalymavia and
branded as Metrojet, was “completely destroyed with all on board likely to have
died”, a security officer from the search and rescue team said.
But officers at the scene said the voices of trapped
passengers could be heard from a section of the crashed plane. Destined for St
Petersburg, it was carrying 224 people, including 17 children and seven crew
members.
“The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that
burned and a larger part that crashed into a rock. We have extracted at least
100 bodies and the rest are still inside,” an anonymous officer told Reuters.
“There is another section of the plane with passengers
inside that the rescue team is still trying to enter and we hope to find
survivors, especially after hearing pained voices of people inside.”
Egypt’s health ministry had dispatched 45 ambulances to the
scene to “evacuate the dead and wounded” which could indicate the possibility
of survivors, though this remains unconfirmed. At least five of the children on
board are feared dead.
Live Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt’s Sinai -
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Follow the latest updates after a plane carrying 224
passengers and crew crashed 20 minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh
The crash site was found on Saturday morning in southern
Arish, a mountainous area of central Sinai, but poor weather conditions were
making it difficult for some rescue crews to reach the scene, the security
officer said.
Northern Sinai is home to groups of Islamist militants, many
affiliated to Islamic State, but there were no indications the plane was shot
down, Egyptian security sources told Reuters.
A statement from the Egyptian prime minister’s office said
Sherif Ismail formed a cabinet-level crisis committee to deal with the crash,
which was believed to have been caused by a mechanical failure. The prime
minister has since departed for the crash site with several cabinet ministers
on a private jet, the tourism ministry said.
The plane, which had a tail number of EI-ETJ, lost contact
23 minutes after takeoff while flying at more than 30,000 ft above sea level, according to
the plane tracker website Flight Radar. It had begun to make a steep
descent at a rate of 6,000 feet per minute shortly before communications were
lost.
Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, said flight
7K9268 had left at 03:51 GMT and was due into St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport
at 12:10, it told TASS news
agency. The plane had failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air
traffic control and disappeared from the radar.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his deepest
condolences to the families of victims of the crash of a Russian airliner in Egypt, Russian news agencies
reported. Putin also ordered government ministries to offer immediate
assistance to relatives of those killed.
The Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is a popular
destination for Russian tourists and it is believed the majority of those on
board were Russians. Distraught friends and family began arriving at St
Petersburg airport on Saturday.
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People arrive at Pulkovo airport for news of the plane
crash. Photograph: Alexander Demianchuk/Itar-Tass Photo/Corbis
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“I am meeting my parents,” said 25-year-old Ella Smirnova.
“I spoke to them last on the phone when they were already on the plane, and
then I heard the news. I will keep hoping until the end that they are alive,
but perhaps I will never see them again.”
Source: The Guardian
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