Russia and Egypt yesterday dismissed suggestions by Britain and the US that a bomb was likely to have brought down a Metrojet flight packed with Russian vacationers leaving an Egyptian resort, saying the claim was premature.
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, said that aviation investigators were working on all possible theories as to why the Airbus A321-200 carrying 224 people crashed on Saturday last week in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing everyone on board. He said naming just one possibility was mere speculation.
“One cannot rule out a single theory, but at this point there are no reasons to voice just one theory as reliable — only investigators can do that,” Peskov said in Moscow.
Photo: AP
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Wednesday spoke of a “significant possibility” the crash was caused by a bomb and Britain immediately suspended all flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort where the flight originated.
The move stranded hundreds of tourists in Egypt.
However, British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday said his government does not “know for certain that it was a terrorist bomb.”
Speaking before a meeting with Egypt’s president in London, Cameron said “there’s still an investigation taking place in Egypt. We need to see the results of that investigation.”
He said the decision to suspend flights was based on “intelligence and information we had that gave us the concern that it was more likely than not a terrorist bomb.”
Britain wants “to start as soon as possible” to bring tourists home, and empty planes will be flying out from Britain to bring people back, but that it would take “some time” to bring everyone back, he said.
He said he had “every sympathy” with the Egyptians, who rely so on heavily on tourism, but that he had to “put the safety of British people first.”
Cameron also said that he would call Putin later in the day to discuss the crash.
Egyptian officials have condemned Britain’s travel ban as an overreaction.
Russia’s top aviation official, Alexander Neradko, yesterday said in televised remarks that investigators are pursuing several theories as to why the plane crashed.
He said they are looking for traces of explosives on the victims’ bodies, their baggage and the plane debris as well as studying other “aspects linked to a possible terrorist attack onboard.”
Neradko said the probe is likely to take several months and called for caution in speculation about the likely causes of the crash.
Asked about Hammond’s statement, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova yesterday said that if Britain had information about the bomb, it was “really shocking” that it has not shared it with Russia.
Zakharova urged Britain to immediately provide any such information to the investigators.
Russia state television has skirted the bomb theory, not mentioning the British and US report.
Other popular media in Russia are full of speculation about the crash and reports about signs they believe point to foul play.
The plane crashed in the northern Sinai, where Egyptian forces have been battling an Islamic insurgency for years. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but offered no proof.
In the ancient city of Luxor yesterday, Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh Eldamaty rejected the US and British allegations outright.
“[The crash] is not a terror act. It was an accident,” he said as authorities opened three tombs to the public for the first time in an effort to encourage tourism. “[It’s] very sad what happened, but we have to wait for the result of the investigation.”
Intercepted communications played a role in the tentative conclusion that the Islamic State group’s Sinai affiliate planted an explosive device on the plane, said a US official briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss intelligence matters publicly.
The official and others said there had been no formal judgment rendered by the CIA or other intelligence agencies, and that forensic evidence from the blast site, including the airplane’s black box, is still being analyzed.
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