Russian jet crashes over Egypt

Really, the Russian media should already be churning out lurid claims about the passengers having been killed by ISIS terrorists supplied by Israel - or even accusing Netenyahu in person of murdering them.

However...

https://www.rt.com/news/320217-russian-plane-off-radars/

The flight was traveling from the Egyptian resort to St. Petersburg, RIA Novosti reported. It belonged to Kogalymavia airline, which also uses the brand name Metrojet.

The plane was supposed to contact air traffic in Turkish Cyprus’ Larnaca after leaving Egypt’s airspace, but failed to do so.

A source at Sharm El-Sheikh Airport told RIA Novosti the pilot of the missing plane requested a change of course, saying the jet would have to land in Cairo.

The source said the crew of the crashed plane had complained to the airport’s technical service that the jet had engine problems.

A tragedy that may well have been avoidable, but down to carelessness, not malice.

Contrary to rumour, there appear to be no survivors, and almost all of the dead are Russians:

https://www.rt.com/news/320225-plane-crash-russian-egypt/

Such a tragedy and will await the results of the enquiry. 

I would be very surprised if it was anything other than a possibly-avoidable accident, Lily. Aeroflot is as good as any other national carrier, but some of the smaller Russian airlines have a rather dodgy reputation.

Which is no comfort for the families of the dead, unfortunately.

I see ISIS is claiming responsibility for the crash; I doubt that very much, but even making the claim, gloating and calling the dead Russians 'crusaders' is suicidal.

Putin now won't stop until every single one of them is as dead as the poor passengers.

The tail being hit by lightening in 2001 should not affect anything later?

It wasn't hit by lightning, Lily, it hit the runway....

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20011116-0

A bad move by ISIS even if it isn't true. Putin takes no prisoners.

Indeed, Sabot. I doubt very much if it was ISIS - the US or Saudis would have had to provide them with some pretty hi-tech weaponry for that - but just claiming it was them is, IMO, a green light for Russia not to stop until they've been wiped out, totally.

There are still a handful of countries you just don't annoy - and Russia is one of them.

Such a pity that we have to rely on Russia for this. But in the end it doesn't matter who wipes them out.

I've decided I don't greatly care who wipes them out, Sabot, or how they do it. I doubt very much if ISIS did this - it's far more likely that, say, a repair to the damaged tail finally failed.

But that will make little difference to Russia - the gloating will be reason enough to blast them off the face of the earth. Russia is putting videos of their airstrikes online, and they aren't messing around as it is - none of this business of bombing empty desert while somehow managing to miss the ISIS convoy...

I don't like all this death and destruction, but someone has to do something. I'm just glad that it's not me.

Thanks Bonny.  I didn't realize it was that kind of hit.  Oh my.....I guess that really could do that.  

My money would be on something like that happening, Lily, not on the more hysterical theories appearing in the MSM.

Apart from anything else, it's not that easy to shoot down planes at high altitude (which brings us back to MH-17).

This one was hit by a shoulder-held rocket when it was taking off:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Baghdad_DHL_attempted_shootdown_incident

The pilot miraculously managed to land his mangled plane without casualties. So, unless someone has been supplying ISIS with big, complicated missile-launching systems, it was almost certainly some kind of mechanical failure.

Agreed.  It does sound more sensational, given the current events, that it was shot down.  

Some interesting chatter, and photos, about this tragedy here:

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/569907-breaking-news-airliner-missing-within-egyptian-fir-14.html

I won't even pretend to know what the wreckage is saying; what is new is that the wreckage, and the dead, are now said to be over quite a wide area.

Yes it is Bonny.  I think I will wait for more info as the cause could have been many things?

Best idea, Lily. Unfortunately, everything about this tragedy is a perfect storm for conspiraloons.

We will find out soon enough.

Mind you, if Russia starts napalming ISIS, we'll know they've found out it was terrorism of some kind....

Of course.

Lots of rumour, claim and counter-claim today - I had to put Sky News off, as they were all in such a state of hysteria. It's over this:

https://www.rt.com/news/320469-sinai-plane-owner-statement/

The Russian passenger jet that crashed in Sinai, Egypt, must have been damaged by a force in flight and couldn’t have just broken apart, the airline of the ill-fated Airbus A321 said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has urged an end to speculation until the investigation is complete.
Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on Russian passenger jet crash over Sinai

“It would be wrong to articulate any preliminary guesses or voice statements that are not based on anything,” said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for the Russian president, on Monday. “Let the investigators produce at least some results first.”

The crew of Kolavia Flight 7K9268 was apparently disabled before the aircraft started its rapid descent and crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, Viktor Yung, deputy director of the airline told the media on Monday.

“As the catastrophic incident started to develop, the crew members were rendered completely incapable. This explains why they didn’t attempt to contact air traffic and report the incident happening on board,” he said.

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.

“We are certain that neither technical malfunction nor pilot error” can be blamed for the disaster, Aleksandr Smirnov, who supervises the company’s fleet, said.......more at link.


Hmm. Unless the laws of physics have changed recently, if the tail fell off because the old repair failed, then the aircraft would instantly decompress. It would also become uncontrollable, and the combination of the decompression and G-force would be quite sufficient to tear it apart in the air.

Whatever happened, I hope the passengers knew little about it.

I also hope it wasn't a bomb - if it crashed because of human malice, then Russia's revenge will be terrible indeed.

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/569907-breaking-news-airliner-missing-within-egyptian-fir-19.html

Quotes:


This photo of EI-ETJ was apparently taken in May of this year (sorry, can't post picture): Photo Metrojet Airbus A321-231 EI-ETJ

Does the bottom of the rudder look quite as it should?
------

I agree, AirScotia, I would not want to fly in a plane with the rudder in that state.

Photo cropped by me:



Big original:

http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=1369447