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 according to Dailymail.
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.
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| One of the 17 Children who died in the crash |
Egyptian sources are claiming that wreckage has been spread over a three-mile area while an ISIS-affiliate has tried to claim responsibility for the disaster.
According to the statement: 'The soldiers of the caliphate succeeded in bringing down a Russian plane in Sinai.'
Ayman al-Mugadem of the Aviation Incidents Committee said the pilot warned air traffic controllers that aircraft had developed 'a technical problem' and he needed to land as soon as possible.
According to radar data, the aircraft was descending at more than 6,000 feet per minute shortly before the impact.
A statement from an ISIS-linked group being broadcast on jihadist propaganda channels said: 'A Russian plane was dropped with the destruction of more than 220 Russian Crusaders, thankfully.'
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| VICTIM |
However, the aircraft vanished from radar screens at 30,000 feet, more than double the effective range of a shoulder-carried ground-to-air weapon system.The group known as A3'Maq News under the headline: "'ighters of the Islamic State down a Russian passenger plane in the sky over the Egyptian Sinai.'
It quoted a source as saying: 'This operation came in response to raids by Russian planes that have caused the deaths of hundreds of Muslims on Syrian territory, most of them women and children.'
The head of Egypt's civil aviation authority, Mahmud al-Zinati. said there were 'many dead' including 17 children. Officials said 214 of the passengers were Russians with three Ukrainians on board.
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| VICTIM |
Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the state company that runs Egypt's civilian airports, said the plane had successfully undergone technical checks at Sharm el-Sheikh's airport before taking off.
He said experts were going there to view security camera footage of the Metrojet plane at the airport.
The aircraft was leased by Kogalymavia. Airline spokeswoman Oxana Golovina said the airline's pilot Valery Nemov had more than 12,000 hours of flying experience.
She said: 'Our aircraft was in full working order, our crew was experienced, our pilot had a great deal of flying experience, so we don't know (what caused the crash).'
They stressed that human error was not at fault for the crash.
The aircraft was manufactured in 1997 and has been operated by Metrojet since 2012. Since leaving the Airbus factory it has flown some 56,000 flight hours completing almost 21,000 journeys.
Russia's state transport regulator Rostransnadzor found violations when it last conducted a routine flight safety inspection of Kogalymavia.
But after the inspection, which took place in March 2014, the airline addressed the safety concerns.
However, the RIA Novosti news agency said that the pilot's had expressed concerns about one of the aircraft's engines.
A source told the agency: 'This board (crew) had several times requested help from technical services due to an engine not starting up several times this week.'
Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered his own team of experts to the crash site to determine the cause of the disaster. He has also declared a day of national mourning. He has already sent five aircraft to Egypt to assist with the investigation.
The Israeli Defence Forces confirmed they had intelligence assets in the region at the time of the crash. According to a statement: 'Since this morning the IDF assisted with aerial surveillance in the efforts to locate the Russian airplane that lost contact over the Sinai Peninsula.
'The IDF has offered continued assistance to both Russia and Egypt if required.'
The wreckage was found roughly 60 miles south of the North Sinai town of El-Arish, Egyptian 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.
One official at the scene said: 'I now see a tragic scene. A lot of dead on the ground and many 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 Egyptian Aviation Ministry said there were 63 men and 138 women on board.
At Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, anxious family members awaited news of their loved ones.
Ella Smirnova, 25, said: 'I am meeting my parents. 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.
A senior official in Egypt air traffic control said that the pilot told him in their last communication that he was having trouble with the plane's radio system.
Russian aviation official Sergei Lzvolsky told Interfax news agency that the Kogalymavia Russian airline had departed Sharm el-Sheikh at 5:51 am local time.
He said the Airbus 321 did not make contact as expected with air traffic controllers in Cyprus.
Reports suggest the pilot was attempting an emergency landing at El-Arish international Airport.
The aircraft took off from Sharm el-Sheikh at 3.51GMT and was due to land in St Petersburg at 09:12GMT.
The Russian Investigative Committee has launched its own probe and is looking for possible 'violations of flight safety procedures'.
Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top investigative body, has opened an investigation into the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt's Sinai peninsula for possible violations of flight safety procedures.
Committee spokesman Sergei Markin made the announcement in a statement Saturday.
The plane had been chartered by a Russian tourism company and run by Kogalymavia, which now operates under the name Metrojet.
Egyptian authorities confirmed that 'casualties' were being evacuated to local hospitals. A total of 45 ambulances have been sent to the scene.
The aircraft is believed to have broken into two sections after the jet crashed. Early reports said that the bodies of five children have been recovered, still strapped to their seats.
According to Flight Radar 24, the jet was plunging at 5,760 feet per minute at 30,000 feet when it lost contact with air traffic controllers.
Reports suggest the pilot had warned air traffic controllers of a technical issue on board the aircraft.
Weather conditions were said to be poor at the time of the crash.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences with the families of those people on board the tragic jet. He has ordered his own crash investigators to the scene to probe the cause of the disaster.
Egyptian security officials have found the wreckage in a remote mountainous region which has large numbers of ISIS-affiliated terrorists, although they are not thought to possess any weapons which could hit a passenger jet at its 35,000 feet cruising altitude.
However, airlines have been warned not to drop below 24,000 feet in the area due to the threat of 'dedicated anti-aircraft weapons'.
Egypt's top prosecutor ordered an investigation into the cause of the disaster.
It is understood that emergency workers at the scenes have located at least one of the two 'black boxes' which are located in the tail section of the jet.
Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek ordered the formation of a team tasked with going to the site of the crash and investigating the debris.
Russian media claimed that pilots on the doomed jet had complained earlier this week about engine problems and it is reported they may have sought to divert the aircraft before it plunged to the earth.
The aircraft suffered a 'tail strike' in November 2001 as it attempted to land at Cairo International Airport from Beirut according to an aviation safety website.
The Egyptian prime minister Sharif Ismail said: 'Russian civilian plane... crashed in the central Sinai.'
His office confirmed that a cabinet level crisis committee has been established to deal with the crisis.
It is understood that the aircraft had just taken off on a four-hour flight to St Petersburg when it went missing shortly after take off.
The Airbus A321-231 is believed to have been manufactured in 1997 and is owned by a Dublin-based company.
Egypt's ministry of civil aviation says it lost contact with a Russian aircraft carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members over the Sinai peninsula, according to Egypt's state-run news agency.
The flight took off from Sinai's Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular destination for Russian tourists, at 5.51am local time and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after take-off, a statement carried by the MENA agency said.
Egyptian emergency authorities have sent 45 ambulances to the scene to help with the rescue efforts.
There were no indications the aircraft was shot down, according to Egyptian security sources.
However, the area the aircraft crashed in Egypt's North Sinai is home to a two-year-old Islamist insurgency and militants affiliated to ISIS have killed hundreds of soldiers and police.
The aircraft went down in an area where pilots are warned against flying at less than 24,000 feet because of the danger of 'dedicated anti-aircraft weapons'.
Air crash investigators are currently on their way to the scene, but their work will be made more difficult by the inhospitable terrain and the presence of ISIS-affiliated terrorists.
The probe is being headed by Ayman Al-Mokadem according to Ahram.org. He said the pilot had requested a diversion before the crash for a 'technical failure'.
He claimed the pilot had asked for the nearest airport and may have been heading to Al-Arish in northern Sinai.
Reports from local journalists claim that local tribesmen near the remote crash site claimed that the aircraft was 'burning' as it fell from the sky.
US Secretary of State John Kerry offered his condolences during a visit the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
He said: 'We don't know any details about it, but obviously the initial reports represent tremendous tragedy, loss, and we extend our condolences to the families and all those concerned.'
Egyptian officials say all 224 people - 217 passengers and seven crew - on the Metrojet flight were Russian and there were no survivors in Saturday's crash in the Sinai Peninsula.
Russian officials have taken relatives and friends to a hotel near St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport.
Yulia Zaitseva said her friends, a newlywed couple named Elena Rodina and Alexqander Krotov, were on the flight. Both were 33.
Zaitseva says Saturday that her friend 'really wanted to go to Egypt, though I told her "why the hell do you want to go to Egypt?"
'We were friends for 20 years. She was a very good friend who was ready to give everything to other people. To lose such a friend is like having your hand cut off.'
She said Rodina's parents feel 'like their lives are over.'
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