[This story was updated to include statements made at an Egyptian government press conference.]
One week on from the October 31 crash in Egypt’s Sinai Desert of an Airbus A321 operated by Russian carrier Metrojet little information is emerging from the official investigation into the accident that killed all 217 passengers and 7 crew. Turning instead to intelligence reports suggesting that the aircraft could have been destroyed by a bomb, on November 6 Russia’s government suspended all flights by Russian carriers in and out of Egypt.
The move came some 48 hours after the UK government stopped flights to and from the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the Metrojet flight to St Petersburg had originated. The governments of the Netherlands, France and Belgium all subsequently advised their nationals not to travel to and from Sharm el-Sheikh.
Russian officials had initially criticized the UK decision as being precipitous, but subsequently appeared to have gathered their own intelligence data pointing to a terrorist bomb attack as being a likely cause of the crash. A Sinai-based affiliate of the Islamic State (ISIS) group was quick to claim responsibility for destroying the aircraft, without providing any explanation of how this had been achieved. The Egyptian government, clearly anxious to protect its tourism industry, has steadfastly refused to accept that terrorists were responsible and said that 10 months ago security had been stepped up at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport (reportedly on the insistence of UK authorities).
Meanwhile, a multi-national accident investigation team—including Egypt, Russia, France and Ireland—is continuing to examine the extensive wreckage found across an eight-square-mile area at the crash site. Also being analyzed are the contents of the 18-year-old A321’s flight data recorder (FDR). The bodies of the accident victims were examined before being flown back to Russia.
At a press conference on Saturday evening, Ayman al-Muqaddam, who is leading the Egyptian investigation, said that an unspecified noise was heard in the final seconds of the cockpit voice recording, but stressed that investigators have not deduced what this might indicate. Egyptian officials complained about what they regard as the failure of foreign governments to share with them intelligence relating to the investigation.
Reports by the BBC and French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) late on November 6 cited unnamed officials with France's BEA accident investigation agency as confirming that some sort of explosion occurred on the aircraft before it loss contact with air traffic controllers. AFP quoted an unnamed official saying that “everything was normal during the flight, absolutely normal, and suddenly there was nothing.” The same official added that the aircraft’s FDR indicated that a “violent, sudden” explosion had happened.
Another development late on Friday was a decision by U.S. authorities to step up security checks on U.S.-bound international flights. U.S. Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson announced, “precautionary enhancements to aviation security with respect to commercial flights bound for the U.S. from certain foreign airports in the [Middle East] region.” These will include expanded screening of aircraft and assessments of security levels at individual airports.
Reports about the content of the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder have been conflicting. Initially, Egyptian civil aviation officials indicated that this recorder had been damaged in the crash and that the audio recording may have been compromised. However, earlier last week, Russian news agency Interfax claimed to have seen a transcript of the recording and reported that it contained “sounds uncharacteristic of routine flight” just before the aircraft disappeared from radar screens. Earlier reports from Egyptian civil aviation and air traffic control officials proved to be misleading, with conflicting accounts as to whether or not the Metrojet flight crew had requested an emergency landing.
British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters that it is “more likely than not” that Metrojet flight 7K9268 was destroyed by a bomb, after receiving reports from the UK intelligence services based on intercepted communications between “militants in the Sinai Peninsular.” On November 6, a Kremlin spokesman said that Putin’s decision to stop Russian flights to and from Egypt was based on the recommendations of Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee.
Earlier last week, Metrojet reported that the A321, which it had leased since 2012, sustained significant damage to the tail section back in 2001 when it was operated by Middle East Airlines. As a matter of routine, Metrojet is now the subject of a criminal investigation by Russian authorities.
On Friday, the UK allowed a temporary resumption of flights from Sharm el-Sheikh in a bid to repatriate British travelers, who were only allowed to fly home with cabin baggage. However, Egyptian officials only permitted 8 of 29 planned flights to depart, arguing that the Sharm el-Sheikh Airport could not cope with the burden of additional baggage left behind.