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| Africa North |
| Cause of Russian airplane crash looking more like explosion |
| 2015-11-06 |
| The cause of a Russian plane crash in Egypt is looking more like an explosion but it is not clear whether it was linked to a fuel or engine trouble or a bomb, an Egyptian source close to the investigation said on Wednesday. The Airbus A321 crashed on Saturday shortly after taking off from the resort of Sharm El Sheikh on its way to the Russian city of St Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board. "It is believed to be an explosion but what kind is not clear. There is an examination of the sand at the crash site to try and determine if it was a bomb," the source, who is close to the team investigating the black boxes, told Reuters. "There are forensic investigations under way at the crash site. That will help determine the cause, to see if traces of explosives are found." Daesh, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and is battling the Egyptian army in the Sinai Peninsula, said again on Wednesday it brought down the airplane and said it would eventually tell the world how it carried out the attack. Egypt dismissed a similar statement by Daesh on Saturday. Security experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have been struck from the outside and Sinai-based militants are not believed to possess the technology to shoot down a jet from a cruising altitude above 30,000 feet. Any evidence that a bomb knocked the plane out of the sky would raise questions over Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi's assertions that Egypt had brought under control the insurgency waged by the Daesh affiliate, Sinai Province. As a precautionary measure, Cameron's government has decided that flights due to leave Sharm for Britain on Wednesday evening would be delayed to allow time for a team of UK aviation experts, currently travelling to Sharm, to make an assessment of the security arrangements in place at the airport. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Wheeeeeeee! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2015-11-06 12:03 |