A passenger jet carrying more than 200 Russian tourists has crashed in the mountains of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and initial reports say there are no survivors.
Seventeen children were on board the chartered Airbus plane, which went down less than half an hour after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh for St. Petersburg. Rescue workers who reached the scene say the plane broke in two, and the back half of the cabin burned.
Egyptian authorities say the crash site was in a mountainous area, known as Hassana, about 35 kilometers south of Al-Arish, Sinai’s largest city, on the Mediterranean coast.
The crash of the Russian passenger jet was Egypt’s first air disaster in more than a decade, since a French jet crashed over the Red Sea in 2004.
Prime Minister Ismail Sherif was visiting the city of Ismailiya Saturday when he learned of the crash.
The prime minister said a technical team will investigate what happened, and that the investigation will be coordinated with the Russian Embassy.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin declared a national day of mourning Sunday for victims of the crash.
Flight recorders
Several Egyptian satellite TV channels reported the plane’s flight recorders were found, but other sources indicated the search for the “black boxes” is still on.
Former aviation minister Wa’el Mahdawi told state television that data and cockpit conversations from the Russian jet’s flight recorders would be crucial to the Egyptian authorities’ investigation.
Egyptian investigators will be able to determine what happened when they examine the flight recorders, Mahdawi said, since they should captured crew members’ conversations as well as communications between the plane and Egyptian air controllers.
The Airbus 321, belonging to the Russian carrier Kogalymavia Air, known as Metrojet, had lifted off from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheikh and reached cruising altitude on its course for Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, when it disappeared from radar.
A spokesman for Egypt’s Health Ministry, Dr. Khaled Mugahid, said ambulances and hospital personnel went on “emergency status” to deal with the disaster.
Eighty ambulances were sent to the crash site, he said, and hospitals in a half dozen towns and cities activated crisis plans.
Al Arabiya TV reported there were no survivors and said the Russian plane broke into pieces when it crashed. Witnesses told Egypt’s ON TV that the rear half of the jet’s fuselage caught fire on impact and burned.
