MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st October, 2018) Three years ago, on October 31, 2015, a Russian Airbus A321 Kogalymavia/Metrojet Flight 9268, en route from the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, crashed over the Sinai Peninsula.
There were 224 people on board, including 217 passengers, with 25 children among them.
Most of the passengers were St. Petersburg residents. There were also residents of neighboring regions: the Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions as well as the republic of Karelia, and several people from other parts of Russia. All people on board died in what had become the biggest disaster in the history of Russian and Soviet aviation.
At 6:51 a.m. Moscow time (3:51 GMT) on October 31, 2015, Metrojet's Airbus A321, operated as a charter flight under contract with the St. Petersburg-based Brisco tour company, took off from Sharm el-Sheikh for St. Petersburg. It disappeared from the radar screen 23 minutes later. According to the Egyptian Civil Aviation Administration, the airliner was flying at an altitude of 9,400 meters (some 5.8 miles) but then suddenly dropped 1.5 kilometers, whereupon it went off the radar.
For a long time, there had been no information about what happened to the plane and the site of the probable crash could not be identified.
The Egyptian Air Force aircraft scrambled to look for the plane. The Israel Defense Forces sent a reconnaissance plane to assist Egyptian services and participate in the search operation.
The A321 wreckage was found on the central Sinai Peninsula in the mountains between the el-Kantala and el-Laksima areas near the town of el-Hassana. Egyptian emergency services were sent to identify the plane at the crash site, where a wide-ranging search and rescue operation was in progress.
By agreement with Cairo, a group of forces and assets from the Russian Unified Emergency Prevention and Response State System - over 1,000 personnel and 250 units of special equipment, including over 660 personnel and psychologists, and 100 units of equipment from the Russian Ministry for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters - were sent to the crash site.
Over 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) of territory was surveyed with unmanned aerial vehicles and space monitoring systems.
Two flight data recorders - one a voice recorder and the other a parametrical recorder - were found and taken to Cairo on the day of the crash.
In connection with the crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an executive order declaring a national day of mourning on November 1, 2015. The St. Petersburg authorities extended it until November 3 and the Leningrad region authorities extended it until November 4.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation into the crash under the "violation of flight rules, regulations and procedures" statute, and then also under the statute, "fulfillment of works or rendering of services that do not meet safety standards." Later, they were unified into a single criminal case.
In keeping with presidential instructions, the Russian government set up a special commission led by Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) set up a commission chaired by IAC Managing Director Viktor Sorochenko.
Right after the crash, Cairo notified all countries concerned that they could participate in the investigation. A special commission for the inquiry was set up, comprising experts from five countries: Russia, Egypt, France (the state where the airplane was developed), Germany (the state where the airplane was built) and Ireland (the state of registration). The commission was led by Ayman Muqaddam.
On November 1, 2015, Egyptian Prosecutor General Ahmed Nabil Sadek authorized the participation of Russian experts in investigating the causes of the plane crash over Sinai. According to Russian Ambassador in Cairo Sergei Kirpichenko, under Russian-Egyptian arrangements, Russian experts had almost unlimited access to all areas within the process of investigation.
A team of investigators and criminologists from the central office of the Russian Investigative Committee, together with Egyptian representatives, in accordance with national and international law, participated in the examination of the crash site.
On November 17, 2015, Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov said at a Kremlin meeting on the causes of the crash that an examination of personal belongings, luggage and plane wreckage revealed traces of a foreign-made explosive substance, and described the incident as a terrorist act.
At the same time, the Egyptian authorities cautioned against drawing early conclusions. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said investigators were considering a terrorist attack as one of the possible versions.
In March 2016, an international commission investigating the A321crash said it had received a formal report from the Russian Investigative Committee and transferred it to the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office. Nevertheless, the commission intended to continue technical examination of the wreckage.
In mid-April 2016, Sadek said the crash case had been transferred to the Egyptian State Security Prosecutor's Office, adding that the decision was made based on data provided in the Investigative Committee's report, which "suggests suspected criminal activity."
In June 2016, speaking before the Senate, CIA Director John Brennan stated that US intelligence services had evidence suggesting that Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an Egyptian group that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), a terrorist movement banned in many countries including Russia, was involved in the explosion on board of the Russian A321, while on August 4, the Egyptian Defense Ministry announced the elimination of the group's leader.
On August 28, 2016, the investigating commission began assembling fragments of the airframe in a hangar in Cairo, where they were brought from the crash site. In early September, after the procedure was completed, the commission identified the point where the destruction of the airframe had begun.
According to media reports, experts established that terrorists had placed an explosive device in the tail of the plane and that the explosion caused the separation of the tail, leading to an uncontrollable dive. It was also reported that Russia had almost completed a report on the causes of the crash, which definitively pointed to a terrorist trail: A powerful explosive device with a timing mechanism was used, which caused a massive blast wave and combustion.
The investigation into the A321 crash is continuing.
After the crash, all flights and tours from Russia to Egypt were put on hold. Russia said it was necessary to ensure security in Egyptian airports in order for flights to resume. A number of European airlines also suspended flights to Egypt. In an effort to restore the flow of tourists, the Egyptian authorities have done their best to tighten security in resort areas and at airports. Since the time of the crash, a large number of foreign expert delegations have inspected the security arrangements at the Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh airports.
After many rounds of consultations Russia and Egypt resumed flights between the countries' capitals in April 2018. Last week, Egyptian Ambassador to Russia Ihab Talaat Nasr said that Cairo hoped that direct charter flights from Russia to Egyptian Red Sea resorts would resume by the end of this year.
