Israel offers condolences to Russia after Sinai plane crash

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered Israel’s condolences to Russia on Sunday, a day after a Russian passenger jet crashed in the Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 passengers and crew on board.

“I offer condolences to the government of Russia, to President [Vladimir] Putin, to the Russian people and, of course, to the families of the victims. This was a very serious disaster. We share in their grief. We are, of course, in continuous contact with the governments of Russia and of Egypt regarding the circumstances of the incident,” Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

In Russia, flags flew at half-mast Sunday as the country mourned its biggest ever air disaster.

Metrojet Flight 7K9268 was traveling from the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh to Russia’s St. Petersburg when it crashed in the Sinai Peninsula less than half an hour after takeover with 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board.

“Can you imagine, people came (here) to pick up their children, grandchildren, only to find out that they no longer exist,” said Galina Grigoryeva, 34, one of many people who brought flowers to a makeshift memorial near the arrivals area at Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport.

“When I found out about this, I just cried,” she told AFP, her five-year-old in tow with a cuddly toy for the memorial to honor the children who died, some as young as 10 months.

Flags were at half mast on the parliament building, in the Kremlin, and on other official buildings in honor of the victims, most of whom were from Saint Petersburg and its surrounding region.

Authorities set up a crisis center at a hotel near the airport where relatives of the victims were invited to provide DNA samples and psychologists were on call.

Russia’s state-owned rolling news channel Rossiya 24 periodically interrupted coverage with moments of silence and flashed photos of smiling crash victims apparently taken on their vacations and posted on social networks.

Some people had been on their first foreign vacation, some had never flown before, and one couple was on their honeymoon, the channel said.

“Many of us could have been on this plane, and this tragedy cannot leave any of us indifferent,” Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church said as he led one of religious services held Sunday in the victims’ memory.

‘Fit to fly’

Russian investigators searched the offices of Kogalymavia airline and the country’s transportation watchdog said it will continue checking it until November 30.

The charter carrier was still operating services Sunday.

Kogalymavia said Saturday that the pilot flying the Airbus 321 was very experienced, while authorities at the last fuel stop said there had not been any red flags.

“The plane did not undergo a technical check in Samara (in southeastern Russia), but the crew went through a health check and it was found fit to fly,” said a regional transport prosecutor’s office representative Maya Ivanova.

“There was a probe of the plane’s fuel and the quality of fuel at that time and it met all of the requirements,” she said in televised remarks.

The Islamic State affiliate in the Sinai claimed responsibility for bringing down the plane on Saturday, but Russian authorities rejected the claim.

Many entertainment venues in Moscow canceled their programs, and companies planning Halloween events overnight had dropped the festivities. Media organizations turned their social network icons monochrome as a mark of respect.

Putin, whose office announced a day of national mourning, was absent from the screens, however, and some Russians criticized him for failing to speak to the nation about the tragedy.

The plane also had four Ukrainians and one Belarussian national on board, according to Russian officials.

“It is tragic when people die. It is twice as painful when compatriots die,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Twitter, listing the four Ukrainian names.

In the Ukrainian capital Kiev, people piled flowers outside Moscow’s embassy in a gesture of moral support for Russians despite political tensions between the countries over the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

“Grief has no nationality,” one Kiev native, 32-year-old Lyudmila, said at the scene. “The most important thing is to stay a human being and not lose compassion.”