Onboard Bomb Suspected in Russian Passenger Liner Crash

Russian passenger jet crash over Sinai: Aftermath, reactions Live updates

by RT 

1 Nov, 2015

Search and recovery operations are underway after a passenger plane belonging to a small Russian airline, flying from the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg crashed over Sinai. There were 224 people on board.


19:55 GMT

Crowds have flocked to Palace Square in central St. Petersburg to commemorate the victims of the A321 crash in Sinai.


19:33 GMT

The remains of 144 victims of the Sinai plane crash are ready to be transported from Cairo to St. Petersburg. A special flight is to take off at 8:30pm GMT, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said.

18:30 GMT

The head of the Russian Transport Ministry said that the flight recorders from the crashed plane have not yet been opened and decoded, counter to the claims of the Egyptian side.

18:19 GMT

Kolavia has said that it will gradually suspend the operation of A321 Airbuses.

17:50 GMT

Personnel from the Russian Emergencies Ministry are setting up a base camp at the Airbus A321 crash site and are defining the work schedule for Monday, according to the ministry’s spokesman, Aleksandr Agafonov.

He added that the Russian team is working in cooperation with the Egyptian side which is providing additional vehicles and equipment. Russian rescuers are planning to use drones to examine the crash site as well, in order to scour the place for the bodies of victims that still have not been found.

The search and recover operation will be resumed on Monday at 7:00am.

14:36 GMT

The Russian A321 aircraft, which crashed over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, fell apart in the air, Victor Sorochenko, executive director of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Commission, said.

“It’s too early to make any conclusions. The destruction [of the plane] happened in the air and the fragments scattered over a large area (around 20 square kilometers),” Sorochenko said.