Sinai plane crash: Russian airliner 'broke up in mid-air'

Victor Sorochenko, the head of Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, said it was too early to conclude what caused the crash on Saturday.

He told reporters debris was found across a 20sq km-wide area of Sinai. So far 163 bodies have been found.

Russia observed a day of mourning on Sunday after its worst air disaster.

Mr Sorochenko spoke after visiting the site of the debris, near the village of Hasana. The head of Russia's Air Transport Agency, Aleksandr Neradko, said that "all signs attest to the fact that the aircraft disintegrated in the air at a high altitude".

Jihadists allied to so-called Islamic State in Sinai, where such groups are active, had made a claim on social media that they had brought down flight KGL9268.

But Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed that a plane could not be downed at 9,450m (31,000ft), the altitude the Airbus 321 was flying at, by weapons the militants are known to possess.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi also urged caution on Sunday, saying the investigation into the cause was a "complicated matter" that could take months.

Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said no evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, and IS has not produced pictures or video footage to substantiate its claim.

Analysis by BBC Monitoring found that a video purporting to show the downing of a plane did not appear to be an official IS clip, and was not shared on official IS channels.

 

(BBC)