Russian official: Jet broke apart 'in the air'

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[h=4]Russian official: Jet broke apart 'in the air'[/h]The cause of the crash that killed all 224 people aboard a Russian airliner<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Egypt's Sinai peninsula<span style="color: Red;">*</span>early Saturday has yet to be determined.

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A Russian aircraft carrying 224 people, including dozens of children, crashed Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off from a resort popular with Russian tourists, the Egyptian government said Saturday. There were no survivors. AP


Debris from the Russian airliner lie on the ground a day after the plane crashed in Wadi al-Zolomat, a mountainous area in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, on November 1, 2015.(Photo: Khaled Desouki, AFP/Getty Images)


A Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people aboard, broke apart in the air,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a Russian aviation official said Sunday.
Victor Sorochenko, executive director of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Commission, told Russia's RT news agency that it remained too soon to determine what caused Saturday's crash of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Metrojet flight with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>224 people aboard.
"The destruction happened in the air and the fragments scattered over a large area,”<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sorochenko said.
The plane's data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered and analysis of the information could start Sunday, Hosssam Kamal, Egypt's minister of civil aviation, told the Egyptian official news agency.
The plane was en route from Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt to St. Petersburg<span style="color: Red;">*</span>when it dropped off radar screens 23 minutes into the flight.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The Russian Transport Minister<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has dismissed as unreliable a claim of responsibility from Islamic State groups,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Interfax News reports.
Egyptian security adviser Sayed Ghoniem agreed, telling<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Daily News Egypt<span style="color: Red;">*</span>ISIL militias in the Sinai don't have radar tracking technology and anti-aircraft missile<span style="color: Red;">*</span>capabilities required to take down a plane from 30,000 feet.
An Egyptian aviation official said the pilot of the Airbus A321 had reported technical difficulties before losing contact with air traffic controllers. Ayman al-Muqadem, a member of the Aviation Incidents Committee, said the pilot had reported his intention to attempt to land at the nearest airport.
Most of the crash victims were Russian tourists.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sharm El-Sheikh is a popular tourism destination, known for its beaches and scuba diving. The youngest victim, according to a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>manifest<span style="color: Red;">*</span>released by the Russian Association of Tour Operators, was 10-month-old Darina Gromova.
RT news said a picture of Darina gazing at a tarmac from inside the terminal in St. Petersburg, days before the crash, had become a symbol of the tragedy to Russians. Her parents, Aleksei, 27, and Tatiana, 26, also died in the crash.
The Egyptian Forensic Medicine Authority said it had received 171 bodies as of Sunday, the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Egyptian news agency MENA reported.
The Vatican issued a statement Sunday saying Pope Francis was praying "for all who have died and for all who mourn their loss." British Prime Minister David Cameron called Russian President Vladimir Putin to express condolences on behalf of the British people. Putin declared Sunday a day of mourning.
USA TODAY
Russian plane crash in Egypt kills all 224 people aboard




USA TODAY
Expert: Russian jet was 'screaming down' on descent




Russia's air safety agency ordered MetroJet to suspend all flights until at least Monday, the Associated Press reported.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>AP added, however, that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Metrojet said it was checking<span style="color: Red;">*</span>its six remaining A321s and would continue operating them if they passed inspections.
The German transportation ministry issued a "comprehensive warning" for airlines not to fly over parts of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sinai Peninsula.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Lufthansa, Emirates and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Air France were among major airlines announcing<span style="color: Red;">*</span>they would stop flying over the Sinai until the cause of the crash was determined.
A team of Russian investigators was sent immediately to Egypt, according to Russia's Emergencies Ministry, the Russian state-run news agency RIA reports.
Flight Radar 24, a flight tracking service, said the plane was descending at 6,000 feet per minute when it went off radar.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The crash is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>believed to be the deadliest in the history of Russian aviation, surpassing a 1985 disaster in Uzbekistan in which 200 people died, the Russian-run news agency RIA says.
Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard

The area in Egypt's Sinai peninsula where a Russian passenger plane with at least 200 people on board crashed on Oct. 31.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Mapbox)

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