Egypt: Russian Passenger Plane With 224 Aboard Crashes in the Sinai

Story by NBC News
Written by Charlene Gubash, Alexey Eremenko, Cassandra Vinograd, Nick Bailey and Milena Veselinovic

CAIRO — A Russian passenger plane carrying 224 people crashed in the Sinai peninsula on Saturday, killing all on board, officials said.

Egypt's government said the plane disappeared about 25 minutes after takeoff from the airport in Sharm el-Sheikh — a popular tourist destination — en route for St. Petersburg. The Airbus A321 operated by Metrojet had 217 passengers and seven crew on board. Seventeen children were among the dead, Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Egyptian Air Force planes later spotted wreckage from the missing airliner close to al Hassana, in a mountainous area of the Sinai peninsula, according to a statement from the government which said 45 ambulances had been dispatched to the crash site.

As tearful relatives gathered at St. Petersburg airport awaiting news of their loved ones, Russia's embassy in Egypt said on Twitter that no passengers had survived the crash.

The Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs said one of its citizens was on board the plane. With the majority of the passengers believed to be Russian, Saturday's crash could be the biggest aviation disaster in the country's post-Soviet history.

President Vladimir Putin declared a nationwide day of mourning and and ordered government ministries to offer immediate assistance to relatives of those who died, according to Reuters.

Secretary of State John Kerry offered his condolences and sympathies to those affected, while Israel's military offered assistance to Russia and Egypt if needed.

There was no immediate indication of what caused the crash. Egyptian state-run television reported that rescue teams had identified the location of the plane's black box.

Egypt's Cabinet said in a statement that the Ministry of Civil Aviation sent an investigation team to the crash site, adding that it was "premature" to speculate on why the crash happened.

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were 214 Russian and three Ukrainian passengers aboard, including 138 women, 62 men and 17 children.

The plane crashed in an area of northern Sinai where Egyptian security forces have been fighting an militant insurgency led by the local affiliate of ISIS, according to The Associated Press. The AP reported that the militants in northern Sinai have not to date shot down commercial airliners or fighter-jets. There have been reports the fighters acquired shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft missiles but those would only be effective against low-flying aircraft, AP reported.

Russia's Investigative Committee said on its website that it has opened an investigation into the crash to examine whether any safety or operational rules were violated. It did not specify any suspects or charges but said an investigative team was headed to Egypt on Saturday.

Airbus said the A321 involved in the crash was produced in 1997 and had logged around 55,772 flight hours. The plane had been operated by Metrojet since 2012, Airbus said in a statement.

The company said it stands ready to provide "full technical assistance" to investigators and expressed sympathy to all affected by the crash.

According to the Metrojet website, the Moscow-based airline was founded in 1993 and has nine planes which operate regular and charter flights.