CAIRO: Technical experts and civil protection forces continue Monday their search for the rest of the crashed Russian plane debris in center of Sinai Peninsula for the third day in a row, Youm7 reported.
More than 100 Russian experts have been deployed to the crash site to join investigations and search works. Crash experts from France and Germany are also partaking in the investigations into cause of the accident.
Officials from Sharm el-Sheikh Airport, from which the ill-fated plane took off Saturday, were summoned to give their testimonies on the crash.
Russian Airbus A321 fell into a mountainous area in Egypt’s Sinai, 23 minutes after departing Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh en-route to St. Petersburg in Russia. All 224 passengers and crew abroad were killed in the crash; a number of recovered bodies have been repatriated to Russia
The cause of the crash is yet to be announced by investigations authorities; however, Egypt’s Cabinet revealed preliminary results pointing to “technical failure” in the engines.
Russian and Egyptian authorities said it was premature to talk about conclusions before the end of investigations; however, both denied early claims by the Islamic State (IS) group’s branch in Sinai that it downed the plane in revenge for Russian strikes in Syria as “not accurate.”
Further, the wife of the co-pilot of the jet said that he complained about the plane’s condition, according to a Russian channel NTV.
Russia filed a criminal lawsuit against airline Kogalymavia over the crash.
Egypt’s top prosecutor announced the crash site as “restricted zone” until the end of investigations. Russian reporters were admitted Sunday to the site of the fallen plane amid heavy security.