Satellite imagery shows Russian plane wasn’t downed by missile

New evidence from an American satellite has all but ruled out the possibility that a Russia airliner that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday was shot down.

An infrared satellite detected a heat flash in the location and time of the plane’s crash, NBC News reported Tuesday, citing a senior US defense official. The finding suggests an explosion took place inside the aircraft, which was flying from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg.

While analysts cannot rule out terrorism – the explosion may have been caused by a bomb smuggled aboard, or a fuel tank – the new information decisively contradicts claims by the Islamic State affiliate in Sinai that it downed the plane with a missile.

Significantly, the satellite did not see any heat trail that a ground-fired missile would have produced.

All 224 passengers and crew were killed in the crash of the Metrojet-operated Airbus A321.

“The speculation that this plane was brought down by a missile is off the table,” the American defense official told NBC News.

According to a second unnamed US defense official cited by the network, “the plane disintegrated at a very high altitude” following “an explosion of some kind.”

“There is no evidence a missile of any kind brought down the plane,” the second official confirmed.

Earlier Monday, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he knew of no direct evidence that terrorism was to blame for the crash.

Speaking at a Washington defense conference, Clapper said it was “unlikely” that the Islamic State group had the capacity to carry out such an attack, but added: “I wouldn’t rule it out.”

“We don’t have any direct evidence of any terrorist involvement yet,” he said.

Both Cairo and Moscow have played down the claim from Islamic State that it brought down the aircraft.

“ISIL has claimed responsibility,” Clapper said, using an alternate acronym for IS, “but we really don’t know” if it is involved.

Once black box information has been analyzed “perhaps we will know more,” he added.

Other US officials also said it was too early to link the crash to Islamic State terrorism.

Nicholas Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the defense conference that the investigation is still ongoing, but “at this point, we’ve got nothing in intelligence to corroborate a nexus to terrorism.”

“We’ve seen no reports that would support that,” State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said of the idea that the plane was downed by the Islamic State group.

A US defense official also said he was skeptical. This official said missiles able to shoot down an airplane at high altitude are owned by “state actors.”

Metrojet, a Russian airline, said the Airbus 321 came down due to “external” factors and that “no technical failures” could account for its apparent break-up in mid-air.

When asked whether a terrorist attack could have downed the plane, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no theory could be ruled out, Reuters reported.

Egypt is leading a multinational investigation at the crash site, together with Russian experts, Airbus company representatives and Irish officials, as the aircraft was registered in Dublin.