Investigators of the Russi-an plane crash in Egypt are “90 per cent sure” the noise heard in the final second of a cockpit recording was an explosion caused by a bomb, a member of the investigation te
Investigators of the Russi-an plane crash in Egypt are “90 per cent sure” the noise heard in the final second of a cockpit recording was an explosion caused by a bomb, a member of the investigation team told Reuters on Sunday.
The Airbus A321 crashed 23 minutes after taking off from the Sharm al-Sheikh tourist resort eight days ago, killing all 224 passengers and crew. ISIS militants fighting Egyptian security forces in Sinai said they brought it down.
“The indications and anal-ysis so far of the sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb,” said the Egyp-tian investigation team me-mber, who asked not to be named due to sensitivities. “We are 90 per cent sure it was a bomb.” His comments reflect a higher degree of certainty about the cause of the crash than the investigation committee has so far declared in public.
Lead investigator Ayman al-Muqaddam announced on Saturday that the plane appeared to have broken up in mid-air while it was being flown on auto-pilot, and that a noise had been heard in the last second of the cockpit recording. But he said it was too soon to draw conclusions about why the plane crashed.
Confirmation that militants brought down the airliner could have a devastating impact on Egypt’s lucrative tourist industry, which has suffered from years of political turmoil and was hit last week when Russia, Turkey and several Europ-ean countries suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh and other destinations.
It could also mark a new strategy by the hardline ISIS group which holds large parts of Syria and Iraq.Asked to explain the remaining 10 per cent margin of doubt, the investigator declined to elaborate, but Mr Muqaddam cited other possibilities on Saturday including a fuel explosion, metal fatigue in the plane or lithium batteries overheating.
He said debris was scattered over a 13 km area “which is consistent with an in-flight break-up”.Russia has returned 11,000 of its tourists from Egypt in the last 24 hours, RIA news agency said on Sunday, a fraction of the 80,000 Russians who were stranded by the Kremlin’s decision on Friday to halt all flights to Egypt.
Russia said it would send 44 planes to bring its nationals home, with some 80,000 Russians estimated to be in Egypt, mainly in Sharm el-Sheikh and another Red Sea resort, Hurghada.
Britain has said that it will push for higher security at foreign airports in risky areas even if it means extra delays for passengers.
Meanwhile, Abu Osama al-Masri, an Egyptian cleric and the frontman of an ISIS-offshoot group, has been unmasked as the suspected mastermind behind the alleged downing of a Russian jet, according to a media report.
“Intelligence chiefs belie-ve that the plane, which crashed last weekend killing 224 people, was brought down by a bomb planted by an offshoot of ISIS in the Sinai peninsula,” The Sunday Times reported. The group’s frontman, Masri, an Egyptian cleric, brokered a pact with ISIS in 2014 in Syria, the report said.
British officials confirmed this weekend that Masri is a “person of interest” and that Britain would help Egypt or Russia in a “kill or capture” mission. Such a move could involve the deployment of the SAS to Egypt, it said.
Intelligence officials belie-ve that Masri’s group, Sinai Province, used an airport insider to smuggle a bomb into the luggage hold of the Metrojet aircraft last Saturday. It is feared the mole is still at large, the report said.
The man known as Masri claimed responsibility for the Russian plane crash in an audio statement last Wednesday the same day that David Cameron announced the suspension of British holiday flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.
