217 tourists dead in Sharm El Sheikh plane crash

Passengers onboard this plane were Russian tourists for the most part that had enjoyed a great holiday in Egypt’s diving paradise city of Sharm El Sheikh when their vacation ended in a sudden and sure

Passengers onboard this plane were Russian tourists for the most part that had enjoyed a great holiday in Egypt’s diving paradise city of Sharm El Sheikh when their vacation ended in a sudden and sure death 23 minutes into their flight home.

7K 9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 06:51 Moscow time (03:51 GMT) and had been due into St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport at 12:10.

The Airbus A-321 took off from the Read Sea resort airport of Sharm el-Sheikh, on its way to the Russian city of St. Petersburg when it crashed a short time later. According to Russia’s RIA News Agency, all of the passengers aboard the crashed Russian plane in Egypt were Russian citizens.

There were first conflicting reports about the fate of the plane, some suggesting it had disappeared over Cyprus, but eTN sources confirmed the plane crashed in Sinai and was completely destroyed with no chance of survivors.

The plane was operated by the small Russian airline Kogalymavia, based in western Siberia. Kogalymavia or Kolavia for short, usually trading as Metrojet, is an airline based in Kogalym, Tyumen, Russia. Its home base is Kogalym Airport with the main hub being Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow.

The airline started operation in 1993 and has a fleet of only 8 aircraft.

Reports say it was carrying 217 passengers and 7 crew.

A “Russian civilian plane … crashed in the central Sinai,” the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said in a statement.

It added that Mr. Ismail had formed a crisis committee to deal with the crash.

The authority added that the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off and disappeared from the radar.

A center to help relatives of the passengers has been set up at Pulkovo airport, Tass news agency quoted St. Peterburg city officials as saying.

Here is information released from Russian sources:

31 October 2015
09:08 GMT
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry is gathering a working group on the suspected crash of the Airbus 320 in Egypt’s Sinai.

Three of the ministry’s planes are awaiting orders for takeoff.

09:06 GMT
Egyptian authorities say the plane was traveling at an altitude of 31,000 feet when it vanished from radar.

08:46 GMT
The airliner does appear to have crashed. Egyptian rescue teams report finding debris in southern Arish, in the Sinai, according to the country’s aviation authority.

08:40 GMT
Among the passengers were 17 children, according to RIA Novosti.

08:25 GMT
On takeoff, the pilot had sought a change of course and for a landing to be made in Cairo, a Sharm el-Sheikh airport source told RIA Novosti.

08:21 GMT
The Russian Embassy in Egypt has begin its own inquiry. Is says any new information will be reported to the media immediately.

08:21 GMT
Russian aviation sources still can’t confirm the whereabouts of the passenger plane, despite earlier reports that the vessel had made contact with Turkish air traffic control, according to TASS.

“Preliminary reports suggest that the Airbus 320, Kogalymavia flight 92-68 from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, set off at 6:51 Moscow time (4:51GMT) and failed to make contact with Larnaka air traffic control in Cyprus at 7:14, when the plane was last seen on radar. There were 212 passengers and seven crew on board,” the agency’s spokesman Sergey Izvolskiy said.

08:21 GMT
Egyptian aviation authorities now say the Russia-bound plane is safe. After a brief radio silence, the pilot made contact with Turkish air traffic control, and is now believed to be flying in the country’s air space.

“The … Russian airline had told us that the Russian plane we lost contact with is safe and that it has contacted Turkish air traffic control and is passing through Turkish skies now,” Ayman al-Muqaddam, the head of the central air traffic accident authority in Egypt, told reporters in a statement.

08:21 GMT
Egypt air traffic control loses contact with civilian airliner believed to be carrying 212 passengers on board, mainly Russian citizens. The plane took off from Sharm el-Sheikh and was headed to Russia, according to aviation sources speaking to Reuters.

A search operation has been launched.

08:21 GMT
Different media were prematurely giving reports of plane debris and evidence of a crash, after first believing the plane disappeared somewhere over Cyprus, but the crash was never confirmed.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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