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[h=4]Airline blames 'external impact' for Egypt crash[/h]A Metrojet official on Monday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said neither technical nor human error caused the crash.
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The Russian airliner is ruling out technical problems and human error in the crash that took 224 lives in Egypt.
Egyptian servicemen approach the wreckage of Russian MetroJet Airbus A321 at the site of the crash in Sinai on Sunday.(Photo: Russian Emergency Ministry via EPA)
A Metrojet official on Monday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said neither a mechanical failure nor human error could have caused<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the crash of its<span style="color: Red;">*</span>passenger plane<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Egypt over the weekend that killed all 224 people on board, all but five Russian nationals.
“(The reason for the accident)<span style="color: Red;">*</span>could only have been a mechanical impact on the plane,”<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Alexander Smirnov, Metrojet's deputy director said in Moscow.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>He said that a technical problem would not have caused the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Airbus A320-200 to break up in the air and that only an "external impact" were to blame.
"We (are) excluding technical problems and rejecting human error," Smirnov said.
Metrojet said a problem identified with the plane's tail years ago had been fully repaired.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that it remained too early in the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>investigation to draw any conclusions.
“It would be wrong to articulate any preliminary guesses or voice statements that are not based on anything,”<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Dmitry Peskov told Russia's RT news and other outlets<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Monday.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“At least let the investigators produce some results first.”
The Egyptian government appeared to quickly rule out terrorism after the plane crashed about 23 minutes out of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sharm el-Sheikh, bound for St. Petersburg, early Saturday.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>An Islamic State affiliate operating in the Sinai peninsula claimed responsibility.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Russian investigators have also dismissed that claim.
James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said in Washington said a claim of responsibility from an Islamic extremist group could not be ruled out. But Clapper added that so far no physical proof of terrorism involvement had been revealed.
"The problem is the intersection between national interests, security and safety," Peter Goelz, a former director of the National Transportation Safety Board, told USA TODAY.
Goelz said the airline wanted to quickly distance itself from fault in the crash. Egypt, which was quick to rule out terrorism,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>relies on tourism dollars from Sharm el-Sheikh and doesn't want to scare off tourists, he added.
Investigators are focusing their probe on the theory that the plane broke up in the air, citing a debris field that stretches over<span style="color: Red;">*</span>6 square miles in the Sinai Peninsula. The data and cockpit voice recording black boxes have been recovered.
"The way his plane came apart is pretty disturbing," Goelz said. "The plane apparently came apart at altitude. These planes don't come apart like that."
USA TODAY
First bodies of Russian crash victims brought home
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A Russian government plane landed in St. Petersburg early Monday with the bodies of 140 passengers, killed in a plane crash in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday. All 224 people on the plane were killed. (Nov. 2) AP
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