This makes complete sense. Even if Russia and Egypt were sure that this was a bomb like they might be, they don't want people around the world thinking this is true right now. So, Russia wouldn't want people to know because their country has just been attacked by ISIS and Egypt wouldn't want people to know about this because they want people to keep going to the resort at the base of Sinai that is popular.
Russia and Egypt brush off British suggestion that bomb caused plane to crash
| Washington Post | - |
LONDON
- Russia and Egypt dismissed as “speculation” British suggestions
Thursday that a bomb caused a Russian jetliner to crash in the Sinai
Peninsula, while Britain drafted plans to bring home thousands of
tourists amid concerns over airport ...
Russia and Egypt brush off British suggestion that bomb caused plane to crash
Here's
what we know about the deadly Russian plane crash that killed all 224
people on board Saturday, Oct. 31. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister David Cameron said that flights from Sharm el-Sheikh to the United Kingdom would resume on Friday under a strict new security regimen in order to ferry home thousands of stranded vacationers. Flights between the United Kingdom and Sharm el-Sheikh were halted Wednesday evening because of terrorism concerns, and outbound flights from the United Kingdom to Sharm el-Sheikh will remain grounded on Friday.
The new security measures seem to focus on concerns of an explosive device being smuggled aboard. In particular, the measures, which were hastily agreed upon with the British government, dictate that passengers will only be permitted hand luggage on board, while hold luggage would be transported separately.
Russia and Egypt have hotly disputed Western suggestions of a plot, calling for patience as various nations analyze the wreckage and data from Saturday’s crash.
The head of Russia’s aviation agency, Alexander Neradko, said it could be “at least several months” before an official finding on what caused the plane to break apart in mid-flight.
“The investigation team does not have any evidence or data confirming this hypothesis,” Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said, according to the statement.
But British leaders pressed their own views on the disaster that killed all 224 people aboard the Metrojet A321, which broke apart more than 20 minutes into its flight to St. Petersburg.
Cameron said Thursday that the crash was “more likely than not” caused by a bomb. He later welcomed Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi to 10 Downing Street for what was expected to be a tense meeting.
Cameron also spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stressed the importance of sticking to evidence from the “official investigation,” the Kremlin said.
At a Moscow news briefing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it would be “shocking” if Britain had information that could “shed some light on what happened in the skies over Egypt.”
Nearly 40 flights from seven different countries, including Russia, were due to land Thursday in Sharm el-Sheikh, the ministry said.
But other carriers joined the list of those suspending flights to the Sinai city. Among them was Lufthansa, which said its subsidiary airlines — Edelweiss and Eurowings — were halting service to the Red Sea resort.
U.S.-based carriers do not fly to the resort city. A U.S. official on Wednesday appeared to give credence to Britain's theory about the crash, saying that intelligence potentially indicates the Russian plane was brought down by a bomb.
But the official cautioned that the information was still being vetted. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, would not describe the kind of intelligence that was being examined.
In a Wednesday night television appearance, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond cited “a significant possibility that the crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft.” He said that flights from Britain to Sharm el-Sheikh would be suspended indefinitely and that the thousands of Britons already in the city would return home under “emergency procedures for additional screening.”
Hammond later told the BBC that evacuation flights would likely begin Friday, and that he expected “more and more” countries to follow Britain's lead by suspending travel to and from Sharm el-Sheikh. Hammond said it could take “weeks” for normal flights to resume.
A Downing Street spokesperson said a small number of British military personnel had been deployed to the Sharm el-Sheikh airport to assist with the evacuation of British citizens.
Officials said the effort would be carried out by commercial planes, not military aircraft. Flights are scheduled to begin Friday and passengers will face restrictions on luggage, suggesting that investigators were still examining baggage handling protocols at the airport. An estimated 20,000 Britons are in and around Sharm el-Sheikh.
A spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Britain’s decision was taken unilaterally despite “high-level contacts” between the two governments.
Increased security measures at Sharm al-Sheikh airport were “routine . . . with no bearing whatsoever on the causes of the crash,” Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abou Zeid said in a statement.
The head of the foreign relations committee in the upper house of Russia's parliament, Konstantin Kosachev, accused the West of pushing terrorism as the cause for the crash because of “geopolitical resistance to Russia's actions in Syria.” Russia began airstrikes more than a month ago to bolster the embattled Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
The Islamic State’s affiliate in Egypt has repeatedly claimed responsibility for the crash, which left everyone aboard the Metrojet plane dead when it broke up mid-flight and scattered debris across seven square miles of desert.
The group reiterated its assertion Wednesday in an audio clip that appeared to taunt Russian and Egyptian officials who have sought to play down suggestions that terrorism was to blame.
“Search the wreckage of the plane and bring forth your black box and analyze it. Show us your expertise, and prove that we did not cause the plane to crash,” the group said. “We shall reveal in the coming days the mechanics of bringing down the plane, at the time we want and through the method we deem best.”
Read more:
Militant cells are carrying out more brazen attacks across Egypt
Russian airline official rules out technical error as cause of crash
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
