Russia mourns after Sinai plane crash kills 224

Russia declared a day of national mourning for Sunday after 224 people were killed in a civilian airliner crash in the Egyptian Sinai on Saturday morning.

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.

The black box of the aircraft, had been retrieved and sent for analysis, Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said Saturday night.

After not answering its phones for much of the day, the airline, known as Kogalymavia in Russian but which operates under the name Metrojet, broke its silence with a statement offering condolences to the families of the victims.

“We will all need great courage to overcome these losses,” it said.

It defended the pilot, saying he had “more than 12,000 hours” of flight experience, “including 3,860 hours with Airbus A321,” the model of the crashed plane.

Russia’s emergency ministry said passengers on board had ranged in age from a 10-month-old girl to a 77-year-old woman.

A senior Egyptian aviation official said the charter flight was at 30,000 feet when communication was lost.

At Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport, family members awaited news.

Ella Smirnova, 25, said she had been there to meet her parents.

“I will keep hoping until the end that they are alive, but perhaps I will never see them again,” she said.

Russian aviation official Sergei Izvolsky told Interfax news agency the aircraft took off from Sharm el-Sheikh at 5:51 am (0351 GMT).

Earlier, the Russian airline operating the plane, Kogalymavia, also known as Metrojet, said there were “no grounds” to blame human error, intimating that the incident may not have been an accident. Still, security sources in Sinai told Reuters that, according to an initial investigation, the plane crashed due to technical fault.

An Egyptian aviation official said the pilot of Metrojet Flight 7K9268 had reported technical difficulties and planned an emergency landing at the nearest airport before losing contact with Egyptian air traffic controllers and crashing. Ayman al-Muqadem, a member of the Aviation Incidents Committee, said the pilot had reported his intention to attempt to land at the nearest airport.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian emergency officials to fly immediately to the wreckage of the plane.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities raided the offices of Kogalymavia in Moscow, according to Reuters, and seized documents. The reason was not immediately clear.

A statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Civil Aviation said military search and rescue teams found the wreckage of the passenger jet in the Hassana area south of the city of Al-Arish, an area in northern Sinai where Egyptian security forces are fighting a burgeoning Islamist insurgency led by the local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group.

The Sinai group is responsible for numerous attacks against Egyptian security services over the past two years.

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

IS in Egypt, known in Arabic as Wilayat Sinaa, or “Sinai Province,” published the claim of responsibility hours after the early-morning crash.

“The soldiers of the caliphate succeeded in bringing down a Russian plane in Sinai,” said the statement in Arabic circulated on social media. “More than 220 Crusaders were on board. All were killed, praise God.”

“Know, oh Russians and those allied with you, that you have no place in the land of Muslims…and the dozens of victims that you kill every day with your raids in the land of Sham [Syria] will be the cause of all your future misery. And know also that we will kill you just like you kill us,” a statement in French said.

IS later issued video footage purportedly showing the plane being hit.

Moscow dismissed the claims.

“This information cannot be considered accurate,” Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said in comments cited by Russian news agencies. “We are in close contact with our Egyptian colleagues and aviation authorities in the country. At present, they have no information that would confirm such insinuations,” he added.

Russia recently began its own aerial campaign against Syrian rebel groups, including IS, in war-torn Syria, in an effort to bolster its ally, Bashar Assad.

Terror groups in northern Sinai have not previously shot down commercial airliners or fighter jets. They are said to have obtained Russian shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft missiles, which could be used against low-flying aircraft or helicopters. In January of last year, they claimed to have downed an Egyptian military helicopter; Egypt confirmed a helicopter crash at the time.