'Casualties' as Russian plane carrying 224 crashes in Sinai

[rangerrebew]

 
'Casualties' as Russian plane carrying 224 crashes in Sinai
By Tony Gamal-Gabriel, Samer al-Atrush (AFP)     2 hours ago in World
 1 of 2    

A Russian plane with 224 people on board crashed in a mountainous part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, with medics at the site reporting casualties, officials said.

Ambulances reached the site and began evacuating "casualties," officials and state media reported, without elaborating on their condition.

The plane took off early Saturday from the southern Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh bound for Saint Petersburg in Russia but communication was lost 23 minutes after departure, officials said.

"Military planes have discovered the wreckage of the plane... in a mountainous area, and 45 ambulances have been directed to the site to evacuate dead and wounded," a cabinet statement said.

Officials and the state MENA news agency later said the "casualties" were being transferred to nearby hospitals.
 
At Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, anxious family members awaited news of their loved ones.

"I am meeting my parents," said 25-year-old Ella Smirnova, a tall young woman seemingly in shock. "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."

A senior Egyptian aviation official said the plane was a charter flight operated by a Russian company carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members.

The official said the plane was flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet when communication was lost.

Sergei Lzvolsky, an official with the Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia told Interfax news agency that the Kogalymavia Russian airline had departed Sharm el-Sheikh at 5:51 am local time (0351 GMT).

He said the Airbus 321 did not make contact as expected with air traffic controllers in Cyprus.

- Communication lost -

"Communication was lost today with the Airbus 321 of Kogalymavia which was carrying out flight 9268 from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg," Lzvolsky later told Russian television networks.
 
"The plane departed Sharm el-Sheikh with 217 passengers and 7 crew members. At 7:14 Moscow time the crew was scheduled to make contact with... Larnaca, however this did not happen and the plane disappeared from the radar screens."

The flight was scheduled to land at St Petersburg at 0912 GMT, he said.

The contents of the plane's last communication with ground crews were not immediately disclosed.

The wreckage was found in a mountainous area roughly 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the North Sinai town of El-Arish, Egyptian officials said.
 

State television reported that Prime Minister Ismail Sharif was headed to the site of the accident.

The last major commercial airliner crash in Egypt happened in 2004, when a Flash Airlines Boeing 737 plunged into the Red Sea after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh.

The 148 people aboard that flight, most of whom were French, were killed.

Millions of tourists, many of them Russian, visit the resort town, one of Egypt's major draws for tourists looking for pristine beaches and scuba diving.

The resort, and others dotting the southern Sinai Red Sea coast, are heavily secured by the military and police as an Islamist militant insurgency rages in the north of the restive peninsula, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Militants in the north who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/russian-civilian-plane-crashes-in-sinai-egypt-pm/article/448041#ixzz3q8qIPd8S

[Lando Lincoln]

Sinai plane crash: No survivors on Russian airliner KGL9268
BBC
October 31, 2015

A Russian airliner has crashed in central Sinai killing all 224 people on board, Egyptian officials have said.

The Airbus A-321 had just left the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg.

Wreckage was found in the Hasana area and bodies removed, along with the plane's "black box". An official described a "tragic scene" with bodies of victims still strapped to seats.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared Sunday a day of mourning.

He has ordered an official investigation into the crash, and for rescue teams to be sent to the crash site.

Egyptian officials said 214 of the passengers were Russian and three Ukrainian.



More at link ---> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34687139

[Lando Lincoln]

Disappeared from radar at approx. 31,000 feet.  Very unlikely this was an accident.  Putin gonna be pissed, I think.

[mystery-ak]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3297871/Russian-passenger-plane-220-tourists-board-missing-Egypt-Fears-aircraft-crashed-Sinai-desert.html#ixzz3q9EGdNaX

No survivors on Russian jet that crashed in Egypt with 224 on board as rescuers find children's bodies strapped to their seats

    The aircraft was reported missing 23 minutes after leaving the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with 224 on board
    The doomed jet was owned by an Irish company and leased to a Russian airline carrying tourists to St Petersburg
     Egyptian air crash investigators said the pilot had warned of a 'technical problem' shortly before the disaster
    The jet was plunging at more than 6,000 feet per minute as the pilot tried to land at el-Arish airport in northern Egypt

By Darren Boyle for MailOnline

Published: 03:04 EST, 31 October 2015 | Updated: 08:27 EST, 31 October 2015



Egyptian security forces confirmed there have been no survivors despite 'hearing voices' inside the wrecked fuselage of a Russian passenger jet which crashed into the Sinai desert in northern Egypt as the bodies of 100 victims have been recovered.

The aircraft, which had 200 adult passengers, 17 children and seven crew crashed less than 25 minutes after it took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The bodies of all 17 children on board have been recovered

The Irish-owned aircraft was leased by a Russian airline. It crashed in the Hassana area, south of Arish. Security forces discovered the crash wreckage in a remote mountainous area in a region containing many ISIS-affiliated terrorists. 

continued

[Lando Lincoln]

Russian airliner with 224 people aboard believed shot down by missile over central Sinai
DEBKAfile Special Report October 31, 2015, 12:19 PM (IDT)

A Russian civilian plane with 217 passengers and 7 crew aboard crashed, and is belived shot down by a missile, over Sinai over Sinai early Saturday morning, Oct. 31, shortly after taking off from the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh for St. Petersburg.

Initial reporting on the fate of the plane was confused and is still not completely clear. It was first reported to be missing after contact was lost with Egyptian air control; it was then said to be safely on its way to Russia over Turkey. Russian aviation sources then reported the A321 to be missing over Cypriot air space. Finally, the Egyptian prime minister’s office Egyptian prime minister’s office confirmed that a Russian passenger plane had crashed n central Sinai and a cabinet level crisis committee had been formed to deal with the crash.

The airliner owned by the small airline Kogalymavia disappeared from screen 23 minutes after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh. There were many families with children aboard.

DEBKAfile reports:  The first claim by Russian aviation sources that the plane had gone missing over Cyprus was an attempt to draw attention from the likelihood that it was shot down over Sinai, where the former Ansar al-Miqdas, which has renamed itself ISIS-Sinai, maintains its main strongholds.
Moscow is reluctant to admit that the Islamic State may have chosen to retaliate for the buildup of Russian forces in Syria and Russia ari strikes on its bases in Syria.

If the airline was indeed shot down by the Sinai branch of the Islamic State, the Russians are finding that ISIS is fully capable of striking at the least expected place and most vulnerable spot of its enemy.

On board the plane were 17 children, along with 200 adults and seven crew, said aviation authorities. There are no signs of survivors.
Confirming the deliberate attempt at confusion, Moscow and Cairo both stated that the plane had disappeared from the radar 23 minutes after takeoff from Sharm El-Sheikh.

This is refuted by the discovery of the wreckage, a few minutes ago, completely gutted and destroyed, and a short distance away near Bir Al-Hassaneh, in the central Sinai Jabal al-Halal mountain range, where Ansar Beit al-Miqdas terrorists are holed up and which is almost inaccessible to rescue teams.

It is to this stronghold that DEBKAfile reported in recent months that ISIS sent officers, former senior members of Saddam Hussein’s army, to set up a major campaign against the Egyptian army, along with advanced anti-air missile systems smuggled into Sinai and the Gaza Strip from Libya for this campaign.

Israel air force jets no longer carry out low flights in the areas within range of the Islamic groups armed with these missiles.

Updating:
In another attempt to disguise the cause of the disaster, Russian and Egyptian officials now say that the pilot of the Russian plane reported a technical fault after takeoff and asked to be rerouted to Cairo or El-Arish. Russian and Egyptian officials have meanwhile announced they are forming commissions of inquiry to investigate the cause of the tragedy. Official condolences were relayed to the waiting families the airport.

The Sinai branch of the Islamic State has developed a highly competent intelligence-gathering network, DEBKAfile’s sources report, operated by local Bedouin tribesmen who track the slightest movements in the Peninsula. The Egyptian army and the American troops serving at the big the Multinational Force base there are fully aware of the round-the-clock surveillance maintained by the terrorists at Egyptian resorts, using staff at hotels, restaurants and the local airfield as inside informers.

Ansar has never yet harmed the tourist traffic in Sinai. But once ISIS decided to use it to hit back at Russia’s intensified military intervention in the Syrian conflict, the Islamists would not have found it hard to find out when the Russian airliner was due to take off from the Red Sea resort, chart its route north along the western coast of the Gulf of Aqaba up to Dahab and then turn west towards central Sinai and head for the Mediterranean. All the terrorists had to do was to lay a missile ambush for the plane from the Jabal Halal eminence of 876 meters (2,865 ft).

Had the crash been the result of a technical fault, as Moscow and Cairo claim, it would not have been so completely gutted but broken up into large fragments. The total destruction could only have been caused by an explosion either inside the A321 or a direct missile hit.

https://www.debka.com/article/24987/Russian-airliner-with-224-people-aboard-believed-shot-down-by-missile-over-central-Sinai

[Lando Lincoln]

Wow, Debka is already challenging the early Russian line.

[Lando Lincoln]

One of Libya's (Hillary's) missing Surface to Air missiles?   

[rangerrebew]

Crash pilot spoke of technical problem: Egyptian official

 

    The Metrojet's Airbus A-321 that crashed in Sinai is seen in this picture taken in Antalya, Turkey, on Sept. 17, 2015. (Reuters)

Associated Press

Published — Saturday 31 October 2015

Last update 31 October 2015 3:19 pm
| نسخة PDF Print News | A A
 

CAIRO, Egypt: An Egyptian aviation official says the pilot of the Russian airliner that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula had reported technical difficulties before losing contact with air traffic controllers.
Ayman Al-Muqadem, a member of the Aviation Incidents Committee, said the plane has crashed and that the pilot, before losing contact, had radioed that the aircraft was experiencing technical problems and that he intended to try and land at the nearest airport. The aircraft crashed at a site near the el-Arish airport, he said.
Earlier in the day, Al-Muqadem told local media that the plane had briefly lost contact but was now safely in Turkish airspace.
It was not immediately possible to independently confirm that technical problems caused the plane to crash.
Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the state company that runs Egypt’s civilian airports, said the aircraft had successfully undergone technical checks while at Sharm el-Sheikh’s airport. A technical committee from the company was headed to Sharm el-Sheikh to collect security camera footage of the plane while it sat at the airport, including operations to supply it with fuel and passenger meals as well security checks, he said.
Egyptian authorities say the Metrojet plane took off early Saturday from Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular Red Sea tourist destination, heading for St. Petersburg carrying 217 passengers and 7 crew members.
Plane tracking website Flight Radar said Metrojet flight #7K9268 disappeared over Egypt 23 minutes after takeoff.
Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the state company that runs Egypt’s civilian airports, said all passengers and crew were Russian citizens.
A ministry statement said Egyptian military search and rescue teams found the wreckage of the passenger jet in the Hassana area south of the city of el-Arish, an area in northern Sinai where Egyptian security forces are fighting a burgeoning Islamic militant insurgency led by a local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group.
It said the plane, believed to be an Airbus model, took off from Sharm el-Sheikh shortly before 6 a.m. for St. Petersburg in Russia and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after takeoff. The reported time lapse between takeoff and loss of contact with the aircraft means that the plane was possibly flying at a cruising altitude of some 30,000 feet when it crashed.
Militants in northern Sinai have not to date shot down commercial airliners or fighter-jets. There have been persistent media reports that they have acquired Russian shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft missiles. But these types of missiles can only be effective against low-flying aircraft or helicopters. In January 2014, Sinai-based militants claimed to have shot down a military helicopter; Egyptian officials at the time acknowledged the helicopter had crashed, but gave no reason.
Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said an investigative team has arrived at the crash site to examine the debris and locate the flight’s recorders, or the “black box.”
Separately, Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s top investigative body, has opened an investigation into the crash, according to a statement issued Saturday by committee spokesman Sergei Markin.
Roughly three million Russian tourists, or nearly a third of all visitors in 2014, come to Egypt every year, mostly to Red Sea resorts in Sinai or in mainland Egypt.
“It is too premature to detect the impact this will have on tourism. We need to know what happened first,” Tourism Ministry spokeswoman Rasha Azazi told The Associated Press.

http://www.arabnews.com/middle-east/news/828416

[mountaineer]

Here's the MSM version of events.

Russian airliner with 224 aboard crashes in Egypt's Sinai, all killed
ISMAILIA, Egypt/CAIRO  | REUTERS
  By Yusri Mohammed and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan

A Russian airliner carrying 224 passengers and crew crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Saturday after losing radar contact and plummeting from its cruising altitude, killing all aboard.

The Airbus A321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand name Metrojet, was flying from the Sinai Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in Russia when it went down in a desolate mountainous area of central Sinai soon after daybreak, the aviation ministry said.

A north Sinai security source said initial examination showed the crash was due to a technical fault, but gave no detail. The plane, he said, had landed in a "vertical fashion", explaining the scale of devastation and burning.

The Russian Embassy in Cairo said it had been told by Egyptian officials the pilot had been trying to make an emergency landing at El-Arish.

"I now see a tragic scene," an Egyptian security officer at the site told Reuters by telephone. "A lot of dead on the ground and many who died whilst strapped to their seats.

"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," the officer, who requested anonymity, said.

Sinai is the scene of an insurgency by militants close to Islamic State, who have killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police and have also attacked Western targets in recent months.

Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, launched air raids against opposition groups in Syria including Islamic State on Sept. 30. Security sources said there was no indication the Airbus had been shot down or blown up.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail was heading to the crash site in the Hassana area 35 km (22 miles) south of the Sinai Mediterranean coastal city of Al Arish with several cabinet ministers on a private jet, the tourism ministry said.

Russian television showed film of anxious relatives and friends waiting for information at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport. A middle-aged woman was shown weeping and crying out.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a day of national mourning for Sunday. The passengers included 214 Russians and three Ukrainians.

Speaking at a news briefing in the central Asia republic of Kyrgyzstan, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described the crash as a tremendous tragedy and loss.

The A321 is a medium-haul jet in service since 1994, with over 1,100 in operation worldwide and a good safety record. It is a highly automated aircraft relying on computers to help pilots stay within safe flying limits.

Airbus said the A321 was built in 1997 and had been operated by Metrojet since 2012. It had flown 56,000 hours in nearly 21,000 flights and was powered by engines from International Aero Engines consortium, which includes United Technologies (UTX.N) unit Pratt & Whitney and Germany's MTU Aero Engines (MTXGn.DE).
 
Emergency services and aviation specialists searched the wreckage for any clues to the crash. One of two flight recorders was quickly found, but wreckage was scattered over a wide area.

The security officer said 120 bodies had been found intact.

“We are hearing a lot of telephones ringing, most likely belonging to the victims, and security forces are collecting them and putting them into a bag,” he said.

Russian state-run television station Rossiya 24 reported that officials were searching the Kogalymavia airline's offices in Moscow and had seized some documents.

Interfax news agency said Russian state transport regulator Rostransnadzor had found violations when it last conducted a routine flight safety inspection of Kogalymavia. But after the inspection, in March 2014, the airline remedied the breaches.

Kogalymavia was founded in 1993, and was earlier called Kolavia. Its fleet consists of two A320s and seven A321s.

Russia and other former Soviet republics have relatively poor safety records, notably on domestic flights.

Some Russian air crashes have been blamed on the use of ageing aircraft, but industry experts point to other problems, including poor crew training, crumbling airports, lax government controls and neglect of safety in the pursuit of profits.

The aircraft took off at 5:51 a.m. Cairo time (0351 GMT) and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes later, Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement. It was at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9,400 meters) when it vanished from radar screens.

Accidents at cruising altitude are one of the rarest categories of accidents but also among the most deadly, accounting for 13 percent of fatal incidents but 27 percent of fatalities since 2005, according to Boeing.

Investigators would be looking into, among other things, the weather at the time, the pilots' experience, maintenance records, signs of a stall and any evidence of an explosion.

Experts consistently warn air accidents are usually caused by a cocktail of factors, both human and technical.

According to FlightRadar24, an authoritative Sweden-based flight tracking service, the aircraft was descending rapidly at about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) per minute before the signal was lost to air traffic control.

[Lando Lincoln]

And then, there is this from the MSM article:

Investigators would be looking into, among other things, the weather at the time, the pilots' experience, maintenance records, signs of a stall and any evidence of an explosion.

Experts consistently warn air accidents are usually caused by a cocktail of factors, both human and technical.

[DCPatriot]

An convenient excuse for el-Sisi to collaborate with Putin against the Muslim Brotherhood?

Huma's gonna be peeved!   

[mountaineer]

From UK Express via Allen West:

ISLAMIC State militants have claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane which crashed in Egypt killing 224 people, according to a terrorist monitoring group.

Terror Monitor, an online terrorist monitoring organisation, claims to have a statement from Islamic State militants claiming responsibility for the attack.

The group, which watches terrorist groups around the world, tweeted an image of the Arabic statement and wrote: “#IslamicState (#ISIS) terror group claims downing of Russian aircraft in #Sinai.”

[mountaineer]

What Really Happened? Russia States ‘Technical Fault’ Believed to Have Caused Fatal Plane Crash as ISIS Claims Responsibility
Today's News   October 31, 2015 

A Russian passenger jet crashed near Egypt’s Sinai peninsula shortly after takeoff early Saturday morning killing everyone aboard.

While the Russian government has been quick point the blame on a ‘technical fault‘ with the doomed aircraft, the Islamic State immediately claimed responsibility for the incident stating that it was retaliation for Putin’s involvement in Syria.

According to reports, at the time of the crash there were 217 passengers on Metrojet flight 7K9268 as well as 7 crew members, totaling in 224 lives lost during the tragic incident. The Russian media outlet RIA is calling the crash the single deadliest incident in the nation’s aviation history.  ...

More at Liberty News

[Lando Lincoln]

ISIS Releases Video Of Alleged Russian Airplane Mid-Air Exposion After It Claims Responsibility For Disaster


That didn't take long: following the worst Russian airplane disaster in history, the question everyone was asking is who is responsible. Moments ago we may have gotten the answer.

A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Saturday, the group said in a statement circulated by supporters on Twitter.

Below is the full statement from a group alleging to speak on behalf of Islamic State, posted on their affiliate site, translated by the Guardian's Jahd Khalil. It offers no evidence that the group brought down the plane, apart from their word.

Breaking: Downing of Russian airplane, killing of more than 220 Russian crusaders on board.
 
Soldiers of the Caliphate were able to bring down a Russian plane above Sinai Province with at least 220 Russian crusaders aboard.
 
They were all killed, praise be to God. O Russians, you and your allies take note that you are not safe in Muslims lands or their skies.
 
The killing of dozens daily in Syria with bombs from your planes will bring woe to you. Just as you are killing others, you too will be killed, God willing.

Also from article:

Whether or not the video is real or staged like many of ISIS' previous "made in Hollywood" productions, is currently unknown.

Of course, is the same ISIS which a recently leaked CIA report revealed as being created by the CIA as a "tool" to overthrow Syria's Assad.

In other words, a proxy organization of US "shadow government destabilizing operations", trained in U.S. ally Turkey, and openly funded by both U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar, just took down a Russian plane.

The question now is did ISIS use a US-made surface-to-air missile to start what may be a very unpleasant war.

Also, does Russia get a carte blanche to begin attacks on ISIS in Egypt now, the same Egypt which recently "purchased" the two Mistral ships made by France, which were meant to be bought by Russia in a deal that was scrapped in the last minute due to NATO intervention?

One thing is clear: if the Russian population had any qualms about continuing the campaign in Syria, they were just eliminated in perpetuity.

We now await the Russian response, against both ISIS and its direct and indirect sponsors.


Video at Link -----> http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-31/islamic-state-claims-responsibility-russian-airplane-crash

[Fishrrman]

"Crash pilot spoke of technical problem"

There are all kinds of "technical" problems.
Could the pilot have been providing more specific information?

Perhaps a sudden depressurization of the cabin, perhaps caused by a bomb?

[sinkspur]

A shoulder fired missle taking down an aircraft at 31,000 feet?

I call bullshit.  Even if they could reach that altitude, that assumes that the shooter could successfully calibrate a direct hit.

[sinkspur]

Russia should bomb the hell out of ISIS, but I call bullshit on one of these goofballs being able to calibrate a shot that would take down a plane at 31,000 feet, to say nothing of whether or not said missle could reach that height.

[Bigun]

A shoulder fired missle taking down an aircraft at 31,000 feet?

I call bullshit.  Even if they could reach that altitude, that assumes that the shooter could successfully calibrate a direct hit.

You don't have even the most remote clue about what you are talking about. Not a one!

[sinkspur]

You don't have even the most remote clue about what you are talking about. Not a one!

LOL!  OK, sport. Reveal your wisdom and knowledge about shoulder-fired missiles.  I'm sure you know ALL about them.

[Bigun]

LOL!  OK, sport. Reveal your wisdom and knowledge about shoulder-fired missiles.  I'm sure you know ALL about them.

Beyond telling you that there are currently several versions of shoulder fired missle in the world capable of taking down an airliner cruising at 31,000 ft I'm  not go into reveal anything.

[sinkspur]

Beyond telling you that there are currently several versions of shoulder fired missle in the world capable of taking down an airliner cruising at 31,000 ft I'm  not go into reveal anything.

LOL!! And you think these ragheads are capable of accurately firing such a missle, if it did exist (which I doubt)?

[Paladin]

You don't have even the most remote clue about what you are talking about. Not a one!

LOL!

[Bigun]

LOL!! And you think these ragheads are capable of accurately firing such a missle, if it did exist (which I doubt)?

All they have to do is point it in the general direction of the target and pull the trigger. The weapon will do everything else for them.

Ain't technology wonderful?

[240B]

America elected a Black Muslim President named Mustafaa Hussein Ogammadingo from Africa
.. (I love Islam) Hussain, and then they are Shocked! that he turned out to be a radical black Muslim activist.

Yea, I am shocked! (yawn)

All the idiot Jews deserve every bit of what they voted for.

I have always respected Putin. He is what he is.

He has never been a fake charlatan like our ''president" is.

[Bigun]

One of Libya's (Hillary's) missing Surface to Air missiles?   

VERY likely!