Aviation team has extracted black boxes to determine reason for crash of plane that carried 224 passengers and crew members, dead bodies being transferred to Suez and Cairo
Ahram Online , Saturday 31 Oct 2015

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/162254/Egypt/Politics-/UPDATE--Russian-passenger-plane-crashes-in-Egypts-.aspx

A Russian plane carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members crashed in central Sinai on Saturday, with an Egyptian search and rescue team looking for survivors but only deaths have been confirmed.

An aviation team has extracted the black boxes to determine the reason for the crash of Airbus A-321, which was heading from the Red Sea resort Sharm El-Sheikh to Russia's St Petersburg. The plane, whose passengers were mainly Russian tourists, lost contact with the radar at 6.20 am, less than half an hour after the takeoff.

Pilot Ayman Al-Mokadem, who is heading a committee to monitor the crash's aftermath, put the incident down to a "technical failure", refuting earlier speculation that it was shot down by Egyptian forces deployed in the restive peninsula. He said that the pilot sensed the failure and reported to the aviation authorities that he wanted to land at the nearest airport, adding he seemed to have crashed while attempting to land in Al-Arish's airport in North Sinai.

Egypt's Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said it is too early to decide the cause of the fall.

Reuters quoted an anonymous officer on the scene as saying that the plane was found split into two, with at least 100 bodies already extracted and the rest are still inside. At least 45 ambulances have been dispatched to the crash site, an Egyptian cabinet statement revealed.

"There is another section of the plane with passengers inside that the rescue team is still trying to enter and we hope to find survivors especially after hearing pained voices of people inside," the anonymous officer told Reuters.

With a death toll yet to be announced, Reuters reported that five children were confirmed dead by the same source. Other bodies were found strapped to their seats inside the crashed plane.

Seventeen children were among the passengers on the Russian jet that went missing, Russia's RIA news agency quoted a source in the Russian aviation authority as saying.

Military planes are transporting to Cairo some of the bodies of the victims, a medical source told Ahram Arabic news website. Bodies are also being transported to a Suez hospital, a medical source told the same site.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail along with other ministers have headed to Sinai to monitor the latest developments.

Russia's emergencies ministry is sending three of its planes to the site of the plane crash in Egypt's Sinai, according to Russia Today.

Russia's top Investigative Committee has launched a case against airline Kogalymavia under an article regulating "violation of rules of flights and preparations for them" after a Kogalymavia airliner crashed in Egypt on Saturday, Russian news agencies said, citing the committee's spokesman.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expresses his deepest condolences to the families of victims, Russian news agencies reported.

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IZAKOVIC