Black box data from the Russian plane that crashed in Egypt last week indicates it was hit by a bomb, sources said, before an Egypt-led probe into the disaster was set to release its first findings yesterday.
Both the flight data and voice recorders failed 24 minutes after the plane took off from the Sharm el-Sheikh resort en route to St Petersburg, when it plummeted from the sky into the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.
Cairo and Moscow initially dismissed a claim that Islamic State (IS) militants downed the plane, but growing evidence it was attacked has prompted several countries to warn against travel to Sharm el-Sheikh. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin also ordered flights to the Red Sea resort halted, in a fresh blow to Egypt’s already struggling tourism industry.
Photo: Reuters
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told news agencies the measure did not mean Russia believed the crash — the worst aviation disaster in Russia’s history — was due to an attack, and that the investigation continued.
Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations head said that Russian experts had taken samples from the crashed jet and were testing it for any traces of explosives, but a source close to the investigation said that the black box data “strongly favors” the theory a bomb on board brought down the plane.
Another person close to the case in Paris said the plane had suffered “a violent, sudden” end, saying: “Everything was normal during the flight, absolutely normal, and suddenly there was nothing.”
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi’s office said he called Putin and they agreed to bolster coordination to “strengthen security measures for Russian planes.”
With international concerns mounting, European airlines prepared to bring home thousands of tourists from the Red Sea resort, which has been a jewel in Egypt’s tourism crown.
Denmark on Friday became the latest European country to warn against traveling to Sharm el-Sheikh, following France, Belgium and the UK, while several airlines have banned check-in luggage as a precaution.
The US said it would also step up security screenings of US-bound flights from some Middle Eastern airports as a precaution.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a representative of national carrier Aeroflot saying a plane would be sent Friday to pick up stranded Russians.
IS said it downed the plane in retaliation for Russian airstrikes in Syria, but has provided no details as to how.
If it was behind the attack, it would be the first time the militants, who control large areas of Syria and Iraq, have hit a passenger plane.
US President Barack Obama has said that Washington was “seriously” considering the possibility of a bomb aboard the plane, while British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters it was “more likely than not that... a terrorist bomb” that caused the crash.
Egypt has beefed up security at airports to “give confidence to the British government, but that does not mean we concur with any scenario,” Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said.
The crash has the potential to deeply damage Egypt’s tourism industry, still struggling to recover from a turbulent four years following its 2011 revolution.
Once a remote beach on the edge of the Red Sea, Sharm el-Sheikh has grown into the jewel of Egypt’s tourism industry, with dozens of luxury hotels and night life attracting tourists from around the world.
The town attracted on average three to four million tourists a year before the 2011 popular uprising that ousted former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese