Russian airline denies technical fault or pilot error caused Egypt plane crash
A top official at a Russian airline whose plane crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula shortly after takeoff over the weekend said Monday that no technical fault or pilot error could have caused the disaster, which killed all 224 people on board.
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Alexander Smirnov, the deputy general director of Metrojet, also told reporters that the cause of Saturday’s crash "could only have been a mechanical impact on the plane" in the air. He added that the Airbus A321-200 dropped 186 mph in speed and about 5,000 feet in altitude one minute before impact.
When pressed for an explanation about what could have caused this impact, Smirnov insisted that he was not at liberty to discuss details because the investigation was ongoing. He also said the crew did not send a distress call and they did not contact traffic controllers before the crash.
The airline's statements come after Egyptian officials had backed off their initial insistence that the plane went down due to mechanical failure, with the country's president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, saying that "an extensive and complicated technical study" was needed.
"It's very important that this issue is left alone and its causes are not speculated on," al-Sisi told a gathering of top government officials, members of the military and security forces Sunday. The investigation "will take a long time" and "needs very advanced technologies", he added.
The crash occurred 23 minutes after the plane took off from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh en route to St. Petersburg. Russian officials say it broke up at high altitude, scattering fragments of wreckage and bodies over a wide area.
ISIS claims credit for fatal plane crash in Egypt
Emergency workers and aviation experts from Russia and Egypt swept across the barren terrain at the crash site Monday, searching for more victims and examining the debris for clues.
Hours after the crash, an Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State terror group (ISIS) claimed it brought down the aircraft, which crashed in the same general area of northern Sinai where the Egyptian military and security forces have battled militants for years.
The claim, in a statement posted on social media, provided no supporting evidence. The militants are not known to be capable of downing an aircraft at cruising altitude, although there have been persistent media reports that they have acquired Russian shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft missiles that are effective against low-flying warplanes or helicopters.
An Egyptian ground service official who carried out a preflight inspection of the plane said the aircraft appeared to be in good shape. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, he said he was a member of a technical inspection team that included two Russians.
"We are all shocked. It was a good plane. Everything checked out in 35 minutes," the official told The Associated Press on Sunday. The closest the plane came to being in trouble, he said, was three months ago when the pilot aborted takeoff halfway through because of a system error. "That's almost routine though," he said.
An Egyptian official had previously said that before the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers, the pilot radioed that the aircraft was experiencing technical problems and that he intended to try to land at the nearest airport.
However, the Telegraph quoted Egypt's civil aviation minister Hossam Khamal as saying that there had been no sign of any problems with the plane. "Up until the crash happened, we were never informed of any faults in the plane, nor did we receive any SOS calls," Khamal said, later adding that communication between the plane and air traffic control had been normal and pre-flight checks had not turned up any problems.
Most airline accidents occur in the early or late stages of a flight, around takeoff or landing, according to Todd Curtis, a former safety engineer with Boeing.
"Once you're in cruise, many of the risks that exist at lower altitudes, from bird strikes to running into things, don't happen," said Curtis, who is now director of the Airsafe.com Foundation. "And ultimately, when you have a problem in cruise, you typically have time to fix it."
When planes do break up in midair it's usually because of one of three factors: a catastrophic weather event, a midair collision or an external threat, such as a bomb or a missile.
With no indication that those events played a role in the crash, Curtis said investigators will be looking at more unusual events, such as an on-board fire or corrosion that caused a structural failure.
The flight recorders will provide key information, including the plane's airspeed and whether it was on autopilot.
"The good news is with the recorders in hand, both the French and Russian investigators should have a good idea in very short time what did occur," said Jim Hall, former chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
Meanwhile, the bodies of 140 of the victims arrived at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport early on Monday morning. Russian news agencies say the government will be dispatching a second plane to bring back more remains later on Monday, which has been declared a nationwide day of mourning.
Hundreds of mourners brought flowers, pictures of the victims, stuffed animals and paper planes to the airport. Others went to churches and lit candles in memory of the dead.