2nd Plane with Victims of Russian Jet Crash Leaves Egypt
Local Editor
After sending 140 bodies of victims of the Russian passenger jet crash to their homeland, a second plane carrying other victims is set to leave Egypt Monday evening, Russian officials said. Relatives of the dead passengers got prepared to identify the remains of their loved ones in Saint Petersburg.
Russia's emergency situations ministry said "the second flight was scheduled to take off from Cairo at 18:00 GMT, but did not give any indication of how many bodies would be on board."
Latest information uncovered that the Russian airline Kogalymavia's flight 9268 crashed en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg on Saturday. Eventually, the accident killed all 224 Russian people on board, most of which were tourists.
For the purpose, investigators from several countries have joined an Egypt-led probe at the site of the crash in the Sinai Peninsula. The team is supposed to determine what brought down the passenger jet, with experts saying the plane had broken up in the air.
For his part, Russian official told news agencies that local experts had already started work on the remains of the victims and relatives would start identifying them soon. Therefore, family members have been providing DNA samples at a crisis center set up close to St. Petersburg Pulkovo airport.
On the other side, Aleksand Smirnov, supervisor of the company's fleet said "the only possible explanation is a mechanical force acting on the aircraft." He further added: "There is no combination of system failures that could have broken the plane apart in the air."
Moreover, the airline doesn't believe human error could have been the cause of the disaster either, citing the experience of its captain and other crewmembers. The company gave assurances that the crashed Airbus had passed all necessary tests, including a check for metal fatigue in 2014, an inspection that must be done every six years. The company's owner asserted that "only external force could have broken apart crashed Russian airliner."
In a related context, the above declarations raise questions regarding the statement of "ISIS/ the Sinai District" in which it adopted dropping the jet on Twitter. The organization claimed that "the attack came as a response to the Russian strikes on Syria." Not to mention, the area where the accident took place is known for the existence of armed terrorist groups in it. This fact makes the option of a terrorist attack possible, say observers.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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