Plane carrying remains of Egypt crash victims lands in St. Petersburg
First aircraft with 144 bodies of those on board doomed airliner that crashed Saturday arrives back in Russia
A plane carrying the remains of scores of people killed when a Russian airliner crashed in Egypt landed in St-Petersburg early on Monday, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
The plane, the first to bring back the bodies of those who died when Russian airline Kogalymavia’s flight 9268 crashed in Sinai Peninsula, arrived in the Pulkovo airport of the country’s second-largest city at around 0300GMT.
Russian officials confirmed that 144 bodies were on board of the plane. Egypt had earlier said that it would transport the remains of 162 people.
The remains were to be taken in a motorcade to a crematorium in St-Petersburg for identification, which will begin later on Monday, according to Russia’s emergency ministry, which organised the flight.
Family members have been providing DNA samples at a crisis center set up close to the airport, now the site of an impromptu memorial where people are bringing flowers and cuddly toys to commemorate the victims, many of them children as young as 10 months old.
Most of those who died were vacationers from St-Petersburg and the surrounding region who were due to come back home at midday Saturday from the popular Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Reasons for the crash are still unknown and an international group of investigators were working with Egyptian authorities.
The Islamic State terror group had claimed responsibility for downing the plane — a claim rejected by both Russia and Egypt.
Russia’s top aviation officials have said that the plane broke apart in mid-air, and the head of the Russian air transport agency Alexander Neradko on Sunday said it appeared the aircraft disintegrated at high altitude.
“All signs prove that the structure of the plane disintegrated in the air at a high altitude,” he told Russian state television on Sunday evening.
Interstate Aviation Committee head Viktor Sorochenko, who has been working in Egypt, said that “a first look showed that so far we cannot rule out any theory”.