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What might have caused the crash?

Sinai plane crash: What we know

2 November 2015

Egyptian, Russian and French teams are investigating why a Russian airliner carrying 224 people crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all on board.

The aircraft was flying from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in Russia and the crash is one of the deadliest Airbus incidents of the past decade.

What happened?

The Airbus A321, operated by the Russian airline Kogalymavia and with the registration number KGL9268, took off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport at 05:58 (03:58 GMT) on 31 October.

The plane disappeared from radar screens 22 minutes later while flying over central Sinai, when it was at an altitude of 31,000ft (9,450m), Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Egyptian military aircraft subsequently located the wreckage of the plane in the Hasana area, 35km (22 miles) south of the Mediterranean coastal town of el-Arish.

A senior Russian aviation official confirmed the day after the crash that the plane broke up in mid-air. But Viktor Sorochenko said it was too early to draw conclusions about the causes of the disaster.

A security officer at the scene told the Reuters news agency that the plane was split in two, "a small part of the tail end that burned and a larger part that crashed into a rock".

Disaster timeline

§ 05:58 Egyptian time (03:58 GMT): Flight leaves Sharm el-Sheikh, a statementfrom the Egyptian cabinet says

§ 06:14 Egyptian time (04:14 GMT): Plane fails to make scheduled contact with air traffic control based in Larnaca, Cyprus, according to Sergei Izdolsky, an official with Russia's air transport agency

§ 06:17 Egyptian time, approx(04:17 GMT): Plane comes down over the Sinai peninsula, according to Airbus

§ 11:12 Egyptian time (09:12 GMT): Flight had been due to land in St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport

What might have caused the crash?

Egyptian civil aviation officials say both of the plane's "black boxes" have been found, but it is not yet clear what caused the crash. Analysing the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder will help investigators ascertain what happened.

Egypt's Prime Minister Ismail Sherif said no "irregular" activities were suspected, despite an earlier statement from a Sinai official who said a technical fault may have been the cause.

The Kogalymavia airline has blamed "external influence" for the crash. This means that the airline believes it was not caused by a technical fault or pilot error.

There have been conflicting statements from Egyptian officials about whether or not the pilot indicated any problems before the crash.

Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the state company that runs Egypt's civilian airports, told the Associated Press that the plane had successfully undergone technical checks at Sharm el-Sheikh's airport before take-off.

The flight tracking website Flightradar24 said that just before the radar signal was lost the aircraft started to descend with a vertical speed of about 6,000ft (1,830m) per minute.




Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1300


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