Sunday 1 November 2015

Russian jet crashes over Sinai killing all onboard

This story is developing by the hour. ISIS claims to have shot down the plane have been discounted but since then it has been confirmed that there was no SOS call so that whatever happened happened very quickly. In addition weather conditions were reported as benign.

Social media is now filling with talk that the plane was indeed shot down.

Naturally there will be more as more information comes to hand.

I do not have time to correct formatting problems, sorry.

Search & recovery operation underway in Egypt after Russian plane crashes killing all 224 on board



RT,
31 October, 2015

Egyptian and Russian search and rescue teams are continuing recovery operations at the scene of a Russian passenger jet crash in the Sinai peninsula. The Airbus A321 belonging to Russia’s Kolavia airline went down en route to St. Petersburg leaving no survivors.


Kolavia Flight 9268 from Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh to Russia’s Saint Petersburg, had 224 passengers on board, the vast majority of whom were Russian nationals. The plane vanished from radars at 4:14am GMT, when the plane had been traveling at an altitude of 31,000 feet, Egyptian authorities said



The plane went down in a remote area of the Sinai peninsula, a region where Egyptian forces have been conducting security operations against an IS (Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL) affiliate. Both flight data recorders from the crashed plane have been found, Egypt’s civil aviation minister said, and experts have started decoding the data, according to Egypt’s prime minister. No official causes of the crash have been declared yet.

flight data recorder retrieved at site, being decoded

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Search and rescue teams have reportedly found bodies up to 5km (3.1 miles) from the crash site. So far, 150 bodies have been pulled out of the wreckage, with rescuers having described heartbreaking scenes, saying many bodies were discovered still strapped to their chairs.


The recovered bodies have been taken to the Egyptian capital of Cairo for identification, while DNA samples are being collected from the relatives of the deceased in St. Petersburg. Some of the victims’ bodies could reportedly be transported to Russia as early as Sunday.



Sources say that the aircraft took an almost vertical trajectory as it plummeted downwards. Large parts of the fuselage reportedly burnt up in the process. On the ground, the plane seems to have broken into two parts. The country’s security forces have said that the wreckage and the position of the bodies suggest that no mid-air explosion took place.


The pilot of the crashed plane did not report any emergency to flight operations officers at Sharm El-Sheikh International Airport before the catastrophe, the Egyptian civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said.

Communication between flight operations officers and [the] Russian aircraft was carried out in normal way up to the moment of the catastrophe," he said at a press-conference in Cairo, stressing that the pilot had not asked for help and the plane “suddenly” disappeared.


There is no point in hypothesizing about the cause of the plane crash until there is reliable data on the circumstances, the Russian Air Transport Agency said in a statement, adding that the plane was cleared for flying and that no technical irregularities were spotted prior to takeoff. The ministry also confirmed there were no specific flight restrictions over the area.


The Russian Investigative Committee said it was examining fuel samples from the crashed plane's last refueling stop in the Russian city of Samara. Two experts from French civil aviation safety investigations authority BEA are expected to arrive in Egypt on Sunday, along with six representatives of Airbus. Meanwhile, German carrier Lufthansa and Air France-KLM have decided to avoid flying over the Sinai peninsula while they wait for more clarity on what caused the Russian airliner to crash in the area.

A claim was spread online that Islamic State militants were behind the passenger plane crash, but Egyptian officials have ruled out the possibility of an attack on the airliner. According to Egypt’s security forces, as cited by Reuters, a technical fault is likely to blame for the crash.

LATEST: Egypt authorities deny version crash happend because of diversion

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As far as it’s known, Islamic State and its affiliate groups don’t have the capability to bring down aircraft flying at the height that this aircraft reportedly was, which is something around 10,000 meters,” security analyst and former UK counter-terrorism officer Charles Shoebridge told RT. “That doesn't mean to say though that at least theoretically they couldn't bring the plane down by other means, for example by sabotage at the departing airport or a bomb on board,” he added, but pointed out that “the mechanical failure of some sort is the most likely cause, as with most air accidents.”

As of why the terrorists would make such claims, Shoebridge said that it “increases their propaganda, and it also can be seen as punishment – as they would like to call it – for Russian involvement against Islamic State in Syria, so therefore one can expect them to take advantage of opportunity like this regardless whether they are responsible or not.”


The Saturday crash in the Egyptian skies became the deadliest in Russian and Soviet aviation history, surpassing the 1985 disaster in Uzbekistan which killed 200 people.

If you want all the material, including the video, you will need to go to the original Zero Hedge article

ISIS Releases Video Of Alleged Russian Airplane Mid-Air Exposion After It Claims Responsibility For Disaster


31 October, 2015


That didn't take long: following the worst Russian airplane disaster in history, the question everyone was asking is who is responsible. Moments ago we may have gotten the answer.

A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Saturday, the group said in a statement circulated by supporters on Twitter.

Below is the full statement from a group alleging to speak on behalf of Islamic State, posted on their affiliate site, translated by the Guardian's Jahd Khalil. It offers no evidence that the group brought down the plane, apart from their word.







Breaking: Downing of Russian airplane, killing of more than 220 Russian crusaders on board.
Soldiers of the Caliphate were able to bring down a Russian plane above Sinai Province with at least 220 Russian crusaders aboard.
They were all killed, praise be to God. O Russians, you and your allies take note that you are not safe in Muslims lands or their skies.
The killing of dozens daily in Syria with bombs from your planes will bring woe to you. Just as you are killing others, you too will be killed, God willing.

The tweet in question

Claim Responsibility for shot down the Russian Aircraft over Sinai

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Many expressed their initial skepticism that ISIS is the responsible party:

UPDATE: Responding to IS claim, Russian Transport Ministry says it "can't be considered true;" plane at 31k feet, outside MANPAD range,

claim re. airliner -- 3 possibilities: 1. False claim 2. Bomb on plane 
3. ISIS [somehow] has advanced air defense missiles.

An analyst with the Center for American Progress, Mokhtar Awad, told the Guardian that the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility "is quite vague.





It doesn’t state how they were able to ‘down’ the plane allegedly. Even the most sophisticated of portable surface-to-air missiles cannot reach that high an altitude and are only a threat during periods of take-off or landing, but the plane had already climbed to its target altitude (from what we know thus far) when it began to likely experience technical failures.
 The local affiliate, Wilayat Sinai, has been under some pressure over the past few months and may have jumped the gun on taking credit. Although there isn’t a precedent for such a spectacular lie about something they claim to have done, Islamic State itself has recently been embellishing more and more. For instance it claimed that the recent prison raid by Kurdish and US special forces were a total failure, when in fact video evidence surfaced showed them freeing the hostages. So this may be an instance of the rooster taking credit for the dawn.”

Of course, it could simply have been a bomb planted on the plane and set to explade after 20 minutes of flight time.

Another theory that has emerged is that a prior structural shock (in 2001) led to a spontenous midair disintegration:







What jumps out from this particular airplane’s record is an accident that it suffered on November 16, 2001 while landing at Cairo (while owned and operated by Middle East Airlines). As it touched down the nose was pointing at too high an angle and the tail hit the tarmac – heavily enough to cause substantial damage.
Tail strikes like this are not uncommon. The airplane was repaired and would have been rigorously inspected then and during subsequent maintenance checks. Nonetheless investigators who will soon have access to the Airbus’s flight data recorder will take a hard look at what is called the rear pressure bulkhead, a critical seal in the cabin’s pressurization system. Images from the wreckage in the Sinai show parts of the tail and rear fuselage near the site of this bulkhead lying clear of the rest of the debris, suggesting a possible break-up in flight. 
In the event of a failure of this bulkhead, the airplane would have suffered a sudden and potentially explosive decompression; at its final recorded altitude of 31,000 feet the difference between the pressure inside the cabin and the air outside would have been at the point where such a catastrophic failure would be most likely to occur. The wreckage shows no signs of a fire or an engine-related explosion.


On the other hand, this is like saying Lehman had an earnings miss in 1994 and filed bankruptcy 14 years later.

Even Russia's transport minister Maksim Sokolov has said that the claim Islamic State militants brought down the plane "can’t be considered accurate".



Now in various media there is assorted information that the Russian [plane]... was supposedly shot down by an anti-aircraft missile, fired by terrorists. This information can’t be considered accurate.

However, to corroborate their claim, ISIS has allegedly released this shocking video showing what appears to be a mid-air bomb explosion.

Although according to latest social media updates, even IS Sinai is stating that this video is fake.

As a reminder, this is where the alleged explosion occurred:


Whether or not the video is real or staged like many of ISIS' previous "made in Hollywood" productions, is currently unknown.


Of course, is the same ISIS which a recently leaked CIA report revealed as being created by the CIA as a "tool" to overthrow Syria's Assad.


In other words, a proxy organization of US "shadow government destabilizing operations", trained in U.S. ally Turkey, and openly funded by both U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar, just took down a Russian plane.

The question now is did ISIS use a US-made surface-to-air missile to start what may be a very unpleasant war.


Also, does Russia get a carte blanche to begin attacks on ISIS in Egypt now, the same Egypt which recently "purchased" the two Mistral ships made by France, which were meant to be bought by Russia in a deal that was scrapped in the last minute due to NATO intervention?


One thing is clear: if the Russian population had any qualms about continuing the campaign in Syria, they were just eliminated in perpetuity.


We now await the Russian response, against both ISIS and its direct and indirect sponsors.


Sinai plane crash: 'No SOS call' before disaster


BBC,
31 October, 2015


A Russian aircraft did not lodge an SOS call before crashing in Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, Egypt's civil aviation minister says.
Initial reports from Egypt said the pilot of the Kogalymavia airline had asked to make an emergency landing.
But minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight.
Lufthansa and Air France-KLM said they would avoid the route while the cause of the crash was investigated.
A claim by a group allied to the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Sinai that it brought down the plane has been dismissed by Russia and Egypt.
The Airbus A-321 came down early on Saturday, shortly after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Russian authorities say the plane was carrying 217 passengers, including 25 children. There were seven crew members on board.
Egyptian officials had said 214 of the passengers were Russian and four Ukrainian, but Russian officials said at least one of the victims was from Belarus.
On Saturday morning, Egyptian aviation official Ayman el-Mokadem, who the country's media say is heading an investigation into the crash, said flight KGL9268 had asked to land early because of a technical failure.
But Mr Kamal told a press conference this was not the case.
"Up until the crash happened, we were never informed of any faults in the plane, nor did we receive any SOS calls," he said.
All contact with air traffic control had been normal, and pre-flight checks showed no problems, he added.
In this image released by the Prime Minister

Prime Minister Sharif Ismail (third from right) visited the site of the crash on Saturday afternoonDebris from crashed Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash, Sinai, Egypt, 31 October 2015.


Map showing journey taken by flight KGL9268 before it crashed - 31 October 2015

Egypt's civilian aviation ministry said the plane had been at an altitude of 9,450m (31,000ft) when it disappeared.
Security experts say a plane flying at that altitude would be beyond the range of a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile (Manpad), which Sinai militants are known to possess.
Wreckage was found in the Hasana area of Sinai and the plane's two black box recorders were removed, Mr Kamal said. One of the instruments logs cockpit recordings and the other registers flight data.
German carrier Lufthansa said it would avoid flying over the Sinai peninsula "as long as the cause for today's crash has not been clarified". On Saturday evening, Air France-KLM said it was following suit.
British Airways and easyJet said their routes were regularly reviewed, but that they had no plans to alter their routes to and from Sharm el-Sheikh.
Sinai has an active militant network, and on Saturday afternoon, jihadis allied to IS made a claim on social media that they brought down flight KGL9268.
Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov told Interfax news agency that "such reports cannot be considered true". No evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, he said.

Friends and relatives clung to one another at the airport, as Orla Guerin reports

This hotel near St Petersburg airport has become a gathering point for relatives of those on flight 9268. There are medics here to help them, and we saw an Orthodox priest. Some have been giving DNA samples, to try to identify their loved ones.
In the lobby, men from the investigative committee are huddled over files and phones - beside cabinets full of souvenirs. For some reason, riot police are patrolling the corridors too.
Occasionally, someone emerges red-eyed from the room where officials are passing on what information and answers they can to relatives. But it's still impossible to say why this happened.
A spokeswoman for the airline says the pilot was experienced, the Airbus plane had been through all its safety checks. But there are a lot of people here with urgent questions about why their friends and relatives are not safely home tonight after a holiday in the Egyptian sun.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared Sunday a day of mourning.
He has ordered an official investigation into the crash, and a commission headed by Mr Sokolov left for Egypt on Saturday afternoon.
The office of Egypt's prime minister said 129 bodies had so far been recovered and were taken to Cairo.
One un-named official described a "tragic scene" with bodies of victims still strapped to seats.
The plane appeared to have split in two, he told Reuters, with one part burning up and the other crashing into a rock.

Flight path map


05:58 Egyptian time (03:58 GMT): flight leaves Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian cabinet says in a statement

06:14 Egyptian time (04:14 GMT): plane fails to make scheduled contact with air traffic control based in Larnaca, Cyprus, according to Sergei Izdolsky, an official with Russia's air transport agency.

06:17 Egyptian time, approx (04:17 GMT): plane comes down over the Sinai peninsula, according to Airbus

11:12 Egyptian time (09:12 GMT): flight had been due to land in St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport

A criminal case had been opened against Kogalymavia for "violation of rules of flight and preparation for them", Russia's Ria news agency reported.
Oksana Golovin, a spokeswoman for the airline, said the company did not see any grounds to blame human error.
She told a press conference that the pilot had 12,000 hours of flying experience. Kogalymavia did not yet know what caused the crash, she said, but the plane was "fully, 100% airworthy".
Police have searched the company's offices.
Mikael Robertsson, from the live flight tracking service Flight Radar 24, told the BBC that the plane started to drop very quickly, losing 1,500 metres in one minute before coverage was lost.
Local weather observations near the rescue scene suggest relatively benign conditions.

1 comment:

  1. Incident taken place at an altitude of 30,000ft.As per the reports accident happened because of a mechanical failure.But don't know the exact reason behind and Russian authorities are trying to figure out the reason.

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