| CNN | - |
(CNN)
European investigators who analyzed the two flight recorders from the
Metrojet plane that went down last weekend in Egypt are categorically
saying the crash is not an accident, CNN affiliate France 2 reported
Friday.
Report: Black boxes show bomb brought down Russian jet
Story highlights
- Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
- An airport worker may have put a bomb on Metrojet Flight 9268, a report says
- British tourists stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh when flights were suspended after the crash are starting to fly out
(CNN)European
investigators who analyzed the two flight recorders from the Metrojet
plane that went down last weekend in Egypt are categorically saying the
crash is not an accident, CNN affiliate France 2 reported Friday.
The investigators said the cockpit voice recorder of Metrojet Flight 9268 shows
an explosion and the flight data recorder confirms the explosion is not
accidental -- there is no sign of mechanical malfunction during the
initial part of the flight, France 2 reported.
Everything
is fine during the first 24 minutes, then in a fraction of a second
there is a blackout and no more cockpit conversation, convincing
investigators there was a bomb on board, according to France 2.
CNN
Aviation Analyst Richard Quest said there would have been different
data on the black boxes if there was a catastrophic failure than if
there was an explosion. The key is what happened just before the data
suddenly stops, he said.
"It's this
split second, and it's a millisecond, where you hear an explosion of
some description," he said. "And you see all the parameters (on the
recorders) go haywire before the power is completely lost. If this
report is accurate, (investigators) have now analyzed that ... heard it
and they can identify it."
If the plane had broken apart due to structural failure, there would have been more noise -- and for a longer time, he said.
France's
air accident investigation agency, the BEA, told CNN that Egyptian
officials will make an announcement about the crash investigation within
the next 24 hours.
An Egyptian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said on Twitter that the Egyptian
Ministry of Civil Aviation will hold a new conference at 5 p.m. local
time (10 a.m. ET) Saturday. The Foreign Affairs Ministry did not provide
any detail about the topic of Saturday's media briefing.
Also
Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to suspend Russian air
traffic with Egypt until the cause of the crash can be determined, the
Kremlin said.
"Putin has accepted the
recommendations of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee to suspend
flights with Egypt. ... The President has also instructed to provide
assistance to Russian citizens to return from Egypt. In addition, the
President has instructed to engage with the Egyptian side to ensure the
safety of air traffic," the Kremlin said.
The
United States and Britain shared their intelligence with Russia
concerning the Metrojet crash before Putin made the decision to suspend
flights, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN's Matthew Chance late
Friday.
Putin spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the security situation in Egypt.
"The
two leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation between the relevant
security authorities in the two countries," el-Sisi's office said. "It
was agreed that Russian flights to Egypt would resume at the soonest
time possible."
A U.S. official said
there have been talks among the three countries and the FBI could
provide experts, including bomb technicians, to assist the investigation
led by Egypt and Russia. No request for such help has been made.
24 photos: Russian plane crashes in Egypt
Russian resistance lessens
Russia
had previously resisted the theory that a bomb brought down the
airliner, possibly because any terrorist bombing of a Russian plane
could be seen as retaliation for Putin's decision to support Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad and launch airstrikes against the terrorist group ISIS and other Assad opponents.
The
airliner, carrying mostly Russian families returning from Red Sea
vacations, was 23 minutes into its flight Saturday from Sharm el-Sheikh
to St. Petersburg, Russia, when it disappeared from radar over Egypt's
Sinai Peninsula. A U.S. satellite detected a heat flash over Sinai. The
plane broke apart and fell 30,000 feet. All aboard died.
Russia's
about-face buttressed a theory about the cause of the crash. As
investigators pick through the rubble of the Russian airliner, and as
Western officials sift through their own intelligence reports, some have
suspected Flight 9268 was brought down by a bomb planted in its hold.
Some also think the bomb may have been smuggled on board in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the flight departed.
Report: British Intelligence suspects bomb in hold
The
bombing theory emerged late Wednesday, when Britain suspended flights
from Sharm el-Sheikh to the United Kingdom because of security fears.
It
became more pronounced when it was articulated by British Prime
Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama, though neither
expressed it as a certainly. Cameron said it was "more likely than not" that the cause of the crash was an on-board bomb. Obama said it was "certainly possible."
On
Friday, the BBC quoted UK intelligence officials as saying the plane
may have been brought down by a bomb smuggled on board by someone
working at the airport in Sharm el-Sheikh. The BBC said the intelligence
came from "intercepted communication between militants in the Sinai
Peninsula."
Egyptian officials publicly
continue to push back against the likelihood of a bombing -- perhaps
concerned about the country's crucial tourism sector -- but a high-level
Egyptian official who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of
the matter said Friday the possibility of a bomb is "a theory we are not
discarding."
"It is one theory among many others," the official told CNN's Hala Gorani.
But
the official also expressed frustration that U.S. and UK intelligence
officials would not share information, especially when those details
seem to point to an inside job at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport.
The
frustration echoed that of Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who
on Thursday told CNN he would "only be able to assess that conclusion
if information was to be shared."
"I
believe that this information has a direct bearing on both the
investigation and our status, this incident having happened on our
territory. And I would have expected that if there is information, that
it would have been shared with those immediately concerned," he said.
Hossam Kamel, Egypt's civil aviation minister, has said investigators had found no evidence to support the bomb theory.
Meanwhile,
British tourists stranded in the resort when flights were suspended
began leaving on eight flights that were scheduled to depart Friday.
Easyjet
said one of its flights had landed Friday afternoon at London Gatwick
Airport carrying 180 passengers. It was the first flight to return since
flight restrictions were put in place Wednesday.
An
estimated 50,000 Russians are vacationing in Egypt, according to
preliminary data from the Russian Association of Tour Operators.
Did ISIS down plane?
Signs
pointing to ISIS as the culprit, another U.S. official said, are
partially based on monitoring of the terrorist group's internal
messages. Those messages are separate from public ISIS claims of
responsibility, the official said.
Who is ISIS in Sinai Peninsula? 02:48
In
an audio message from ISIS' Sinai branch that was posted on
terror-related social media accounts Wednesday, the organization
adamantly insisted that it brought down the flight.
Typically,
ISIS is quick to trumpet how and who carried out any attacks for
purposes of praise and propaganda. To some, the fact that ISIS hasn't
provided details in this case raised doubts about the group's claims of
responsibility.
But Paul Cruickshank, a
CNN expert on terrorism, said the lack of detail might have been to
protect a mole recruited in the airport to plant the bomb on the plane.
Funeral for pilot, others
On
Friday, the body of Valery Nemov, the plane's captain, was on its way
home to the Volgograd region, 600 miles south-southeast of Moscow, for
burial, the RIA Novosti news agency said.
Nemov
had 12,000 hours of flying experience, meaning that nearly a year and a
half of his life had been spent flying a plane. His mother is reported
to be in a hospital, receiving psychological care.
Funerals for some of the passengers began Thursday in Russia and continued Friday.
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