Exactly a year ago, on October 31, 2015, the most massive plane crash in Russia in terms of the number of victims occurred. Then in the north of the Sinai Peninsula an A321 aircraft Russian airline"Kogalymavia". There were 217 passengers on board, including 24 children, and seven crew members. They all died. Russian authorities have recognized the incident as a terrorist attack, but the international investigation has not yet been completed.
On October 31, an A321 aircraft of the Russian airline Kogalymavia was performing charter flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The airliner took off at 5:50 am and disappeared from radar 23 minutes later. On the same day, Egyptian government search teams discovered the wreckage of a destroyed plane near the city of Nehel in the northern Sinai Peninsula. All 224 people on board died, including 219 Russians, four citizens of Ukraine and one native of Belarus.
Causes of the A321 crash
The international investigation, led by Egyptian aviation authorities, is not yet over. Representatives of Russia, France, Germany, Ireland and the USA take part in it.
Western media were the first to report that a terrorist attack could have occurred on board the A321, shortly after the plane crash, citing their sources in the intelligence services and officials. From these publications it followed that the US and British authorities considered the version of a terrorist attack to be the most likely. However, Moscow publicly distanced itself from it for a long time, calling the version of the terrorist attack premature and calling to wait for the official results of the investigation. And only on November 6, it was decided to suspend air traffic with Egypt until the causes of the A321 crash were clarified and to evacuate the Russians there.
Officially, the FSB terrorist attack that occurred over Sinai only two and a half weeks after the disaster, on November 17. According to the department, a homemade device went off during the flight. explosive device. Vladimir Putin, at a meeting of the Security Council, find the organizers of the crash “anywhere on the planet” and destroy them.
However, even after these statements, the Egyptian authorities continued to insist that the most likely cause of the disaster was a technical problem. And only in February 2016, the country's President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi admitted that a terrorist attack had occurred on board the A321.
In September, the Kommersant newspaper, citing sources, reported that an international technical commission had established the exact location of the explosion on the plane. According to the publication, experts determined that the terrorists mined the oversized luggage compartment in the tail of the plane, hiding an explosive device between baby strollers and wicker furniture carried by tourists.
Russia and the CIA believe that the explosion on board was organized by Wilayat Sinai (until 2014 - Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), a cell of the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS) banned in Russia. The group claimed responsibility for the downing of A321: On November 18, 2015, the Islamic State's propaganda magazine, Dabiq, published a photo of an improvised explosive device made from a can of Schweppes soda. As stated in the article, this is the device that was activated on board the A321. In August 2016, the Egyptian military reported the murder of Wilayat Sinai leader Abu Duaa al-Ansari, suspected of organizing the terrorist attack.
Scandalous case
Relatives of those killed in the disaster have repeatedly complained about the progress of the investigation and the process of paying compensation. In December, lawyer Igor Trunov, on behalf of 35 relatives, filed a complaint with the Basmanny Court about the inaction of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. According to the lawyer, it was expressed in the fact that the Investigative Committee ignored two appeals from relatives. In one of them, they asked to be informed of the number of the criminal case, to be recognized as victims and to be acquainted with the investigation materials. Another complaint concerned Ingosstrakh. The appeal alleged that the company fraudulently obtains statements from relatives of the deceased that limit their right to go to court to obtain compensation. Ingosstrakh itself categorically rejected these accusations. And the claim against Bastrykin was rejected.
Consequences
After the crash of the Kogalymavia plane, Russia suspended air traffic with Egypt, and tour operators were prohibited from working in this direction. They have been waiting all year for the resumption of communications with the country, which for many years was one of the main resort destinations for Russians. According to the latest data, this may happen no earlier than December-January.
To resume flights, the Egyptian side needs to fulfill a number of airport security requirements (their full list has not been officially published). During the year, Russia repeatedly sent its specialists to Egypt for inspections at the airports of Cairo, Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, but each time there were violations. According to sources from the Al-Watan newspaper quoted by TASS, “a number Russian structures refuses to discuss the issue of resuming flights with Egypt until the results of the official investigation appear.”
With the closure of air traffic, Egypt suffered significant losses. From the collapse of tourism, one of the country’s key industries (more than 11% of GDP until November 2015), Egypt’s budget, according to Reuters, lost more than three billion dollars.
The crash of the Russian airbus and the subsequent cessation of flights to the Arab Republic led to problems for Kogalymavia itself and the associated tour operator Brisco, which was the customer of flight 9268. The case of declaring the carrier bankrupt has been dragging on since the spring of 2015, the next meeting will take place on November 10. In March, Rosaviatsia limited Kogalymavia’s operator’s certificate and deprived it of access to 13 international destinations.
The organizer of the flight, tour operator Brisco, suspended operations on August 2 until it repaid debts to clients and agencies. As reported on the Brisco website, after the closure of flights to Egypt and Turkey, the company suffered “colossal financial and economic losses.”
On October 31, 2015, a Russian Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia Airlines (Metrojet), operating flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
There were 224 people on board the plane, including 217 passengers (58 men, 134 women and 25 children - of which 212 were citizens Russian Federation, four people are citizens of Ukraine, one citizen of Belarus) and seven crew members.
Most of the people on the plane were residents of St. Petersburg. Residents of neighboring regions also returned to Russia - the Leningrad region, Novgorod, Pskov, Karelia, and several people from other subjects of the Federation. Everyone on board died. The disaster became the largest in the history of Russian and Soviet aviation.
The Airbus-A321 aircraft of the Kogalymavia airline (Metrojet), in which the tour operator Brisco, took off from Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) to St. Petersburg on October 31 at 06.51 Moscow time and disappeared from the radar screens after 23 minutes. According to the Egyptian Directorate civil aviation, the airliner followed at an altitude of 9.4 kilometers, then sharply decreased by 1.5 kilometers, after which it disappeared from the radar.
There was no word on the fate of the plane for quite some time. The airliner disappeared from radar screens in the Cyprus region, so for half an hour they could not determine the exact location of the possible crash.
For searches Russian plane was the military aviation of Egypt. The Israel Defense Forces sent a reconnaissance aircraft to Egypt to participate in the search operation.
The wreckage of A321 was discovered in the center of the Sinai Peninsula in the mountains between the areas of Al-Kantala and Al-Laksim near the city of Al-Hasna. To identify the aircraft, Egyptian emergency services were sent to the discovery site, where a large-scale search and rescue operation was carried out.
In agreement with Cairo, a group of forces and assets of the Russian United state system prevention and liquidation of emergency situations (RSChS) in the amount of more than one thousand people and 250 units of equipment, of which from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia - more than 660 people and 100 units of equipment, as well as psychologists of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.
Search operations were organized at the site using unmanned aerial vehicles. aircraft and space monitoring data, more than 40 square kilometers territories.
On the day of the plane crash, two A321 flight emergency recorders were found in Cairo - voice and parametric.
In connection with the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared mourning in the country on November 1, 2015. The authorities of St. Petersburg until November 3, and the Leningrad region until November 4.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation on the fact of the plane crash of a Russian plane in Egypt was first under the article “Violation of flight rules and preparation for them”, then another under the article “Performance of work or provision of services that do not meet safety requirements.” Later they were in the same production.
On instructions from the President, the Russian government in connection with the disaster, headed by Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) was under the leadership of the executive director of the committee, Viktor Sorochenko.
Cairo immediately after the disaster, all interested countries offered the opportunity to take part in the investigation of the tragedy. A special team was created, which included specialists from five countries: Russia, Egypt, France (the state that developed the aircraft), Germany (the state that manufactured the airliner) and Ireland (the state of registration). Ayman al-Muqaddam was appointed head of the commission to investigate the disaster.
On November 1, 2015, Egyptian Prosecutor General Nabil Ahmed Sadek investigated the causes of the crash of a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula. According to the Russian Ambassador in Cairo, Sergei Kirpichenko, Russia and Egypt have an agreement, according to which Russian specialists have access to almost everywhere they want to go as part of the investigation into the A321 crash.
A group of investigators and criminologists from the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia, in agreement with the competent authorities and together with representatives of the Republic of Egypt, in accordance with the norms of national and international law, participated in the inspection of the scene of the plane crash in Egypt.
The head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bortnikov, during a meeting in the Kremlin on the results of the investigation into the causes of the crash of the Russian plane, said that as a result of an examination of personal belongings, luggage and parts of the plane that crashed in Egypt, traces of foreign-made explosives were identified. It happened like a terrorist attack.
In turn, the Egyptian authorities. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that this criminal case is considering the terrorist attack as one of the versions.
In March 2016, the International Commission of Inquiry into the crash of the Russian A321 aircraft announced that it had been transferred from the Investigative Committee of Russia to the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office for completion. legal procedures. The commission itself, despite the transfer of the case to the investigative authorities of the country's state security, will continue the technical examination of the wreckage of the airliner.
In mid-April, Egypt's Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek reported the crash of a Russian plane to the country's Supreme State Security Prosecutor's Office. The decision of the head of the supervisory agency, as noted in the text of the statement, was made on the basis of data from the report of the Investigative Committee of Russia, “which indicates a suspicion of the presence of a criminal trail.”
In June, CIA Director John Brennan, speaking in the US Senate, said that American intelligence implicated the Egyptian group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist movement banned in many countries, in the explosion on the Russian A321 passenger plane. (IS), and on August 4, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense announced the elimination of the leader of this terrorist group.
On August 28, the commission investigating the crash began “laying out” fragments of the aircraft’s structure in an aircraft hangar in the city of Cairo, where they were delivered from the crash site. after its completion, the point from which the destruction of the airliner’s hull began was determined.
According to media reports, when analyzing the layout of the collected fragments of the A321 in the hangar of Cairo airport, experts said that the terrorists placed an explosive device in the tail of the ship, the explosion caused the separation of the tail section and an uncontrolled dive. According to them, Russia has almost completed a report on the causes of the disaster, clearly indicating a terrorist trail: a powerful explosive device with a clock mechanism was used, which provoked a strong blast wave and fire.
The investigation into the crash of the Russian A321 over the Sinai Peninsula. On October 24, it became known that an investigation commission formed by the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office sent twelve fragments of the airliner to a scientific alloy laboratory for a detailed study.
After the disaster, there were flights to Egypt from the Russian Federation and there was a flow of tourists. Russia stated the need to ensure security at Egyptian airports in order to resume air traffic between the countries. A number of European airlines have also suspended flights to this country. The Egyptian authorities are making great efforts to improve security measures in resort areas and airports, wanting to restore the flow of tourists. In the months since the tragedy, many foreign expert delegations have visited the security inspection of Egyptian airports in Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Airbus A321 flight 9268 of Kogalymavia Airlines (Metrojet brand) crashed and disappeared from radar on the morning of Saturday, October 31. There were 224 people on board the plane - passengers, children, 7 crew members, all of them were Russians. The airliner was operating a “tourist” flight between Sharm El-Sheikh and St. Petersburg.
The latest information about the disaster can also be read on Twitter using the hashtag #KogalymAvia And #7k9268 .
Egyptian authorities officially confirmed the plane crash and began searching for the wreckage with army forces, while Turkish aviation authorities reported that the airliner had entered their airspace. At the same time, the media previously stated that the airliner continued its flight, but the official press of Cairo states that the plane crash did occur, and the wreckage of the airliner is in Sinai.
The most eloquent illustration is the Flightradar system, which allows you to track any civilian aircraft in the world that have special transponders. According to Flightradar visible that the plane "descended at approximately 6,000 feet per minute (110 km/h) before the signal was lost" 23 minutes after takeoff.
The press also reports that the airliner’s crew reported malfunctions; some journalists say that the PIC and co-pilot requested emergency landing- however, this information has not yet been confirmed.
Let us note that many pilots and aviation experts, speaking about plane crashes, recalled that an engine failure (without destroying the engine or the aircraft) does not lead to the crash of airliners - they can glide even with all engines turned off to the nearest airfield (this has also happened in the history of aviation - media they remember both the emergency landing of the Tu-204 and the “Gimli glider”).
“The plane crashed in a closed military zone. Counter-terrorism operations are being carried out there,” reports VGTRK.
A state of emergency was introduced in northern Sinai in Egypt in connection with the crash of a Russian plane; the Prime Minister of Egypt, rescuers and military personnel went to the crash site.
Reuters reports that "the screams of surviving passengers may be heard at the crash site."
“The CREW OF THE CRASHED RUSSIAN AIRLINER COMPLAINED ABOUT ENGINE PROBLEMS SEVERAL TIMES A WEEK,” news agencies report.
"Egyptian emergency services have begun removing the bodies of those killed in the crash of the Russian A-321 in the Sinai Peninsula," - reports AFP. The disaster site is cordoned off and protected from looters.
"The bodies of five children have been found; the Russian plane that crashed in Sinai has broken into two parts," AFP said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his deepest condolences to the relatives of those killed in the Kogalymavia plane crash, ordering rescuers to be sent to the scene of the tragedy.
“The total flight time of the 48-year-old commander of the plane that crashed in Egypt was 3,682 hours. Of these, Valery Nemov flew 1,100 hours as an aircraft commander,” Lifenews.ru said.
“As it became known, before flying on an A-321 type aircraft, Valery Nemov flew a TU-154. The pilot was retrained at the AmurAir training center located in Turkey,” the press adds, calling the PIC a professional pilot.
It became known that at least one of the passengers on the flight posted a photo of the plane and her husband and daughter before takeoff, writing " we're flying home ".
“According to the Egyptian side, the plane was trying to land at El-Arish airfield,” the Russian Embassy reported.
“As it became known, about a hundred bodies of passengers were pulled out from under the wreckage of a Russian airliner that crashed 100 kilometers from El-Arish in the north of the Sinai Peninsula,” reports Egypt Independet.
“Eyewitnesses say that the plane that crashed in Egypt was burning in the air,” Kommersant FM reported.
Media reported that rescuers found one of the flight recorders - black boxes - at the scene of the tragedy.
President Vladimir Putin declared mourning on November 1 in connection with the crash of a Russian airliner in Egypt.
The bodies of all 17 children were found at the A-321 crash site in Egypt. RIA Novosti reports with reference to a civil aviation representative.
As Gazeta.Ru found out, travel company Brisco, whose clients were flying on the crashed plane, and Kogalymavia airline are owned by the same people.
“Either a fire in the central/tail section, or an engine fire spreading throughout the entire nacelle with subsequent thermal destruction of the wing,” they write on a professional pilot forum.
The local Bedouin tribe Al Tayaha saw a Russian Kogalymavia airliner crash on the Sinai Peninsula. According to the nomads, the Airbus A321 burst into flames in the air, in particular, they saw one of the plane’s engines burning.
"Many died in seats wearing seat belts," Egyptian intelligence official/Reuters
The office of the owner of the Kogalymavia airline on Stoleshnikov Lane in Moscow is being searched. Law enforcement officers are seizing documents and electronic media from the office, media reports.
Egyptian aviation authorities do not rule out that the crash with the Russian airline Kogalymavia in Egypt was due to a terrorist attack, CBS Extra reports. “This version is unlikely, since terrorists in the region do not have appropriate weapons - anti-aircraft missile systems, because the plane was at an altitude of more than 6 thousand meters,” experts say.
“A couple of months ago, rockets were fired at Israeli territory from Sinai. In Syria and Libya, Islamists captured dozens of C125 and C200 complexes. In Yemen, firefights are taking place using Point U, and the Saudis have deployed Patriots along the entire border,” they write on social networks.
"According to a representative of the Egyptian investigation committee aviation incidents Ayman al-Mugadem, the pilot warned ground controllers that the plane had a “technical problem” and he needed to land as soon as possible,” Izvestia reported.
Egyptian authorities said no one survived the Russian plane crash, Reuters reported.
Before taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, the crashed plane underwent the necessary technical checks and no faults were identified, said the head of the Egyptian airport company Adel Mahgoub. “A technical inspection of the aircraft was carried out and its airworthiness was confirmed,” he emphasized.
On the morning of October 31, a plane crash occurred in the Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people. 30 minutes after takeoff, the Kogalymavia Airbus A321, flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, disappeared from radar. The plane began to rapidly lose altitude and, according to preliminary information, fell apart before crashing.
The plane crash in Sinai became the largest in terms of the number of casualties in the history of Russian and Soviet aviation. Before this, the sad list was headed by the tragedy that occurred near Uchkuduk on July 10, 1985. Then the Tu-154 crash claimed the lives of 200 people.
What happened on Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula? While experts are sorting out the contents of the “black boxes” of the crashed airliner, the first versions of what happened are already emerging.
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Engine failure
The most popular version is the failure of the aircraft engines. According to some reports, a few minutes before the crash, the pilots contacted air traffic controllers and requested permission for an emergency landing due to the failure of one of the engines; according to others, nothing of the kind happened. Egyptian officials adhere to the second option: no one contacted the ground, the flight proceeded as normal.
The Egyptian press quotes one of the local residents, who allegedly saw one of the airliner’s turbines catch fire in the air.
However, this version also has weaknesses. For the plane to crash, several engines had to fail at once. In other words, the failure of one engine could not lead to a plane crash.
Aircraft damage on another flight
The second version is that the plane was damaged in some other flight and they were simply not noticed in time. And if they noticed, then they “patched” the plane poorly. The crashed airliner was 18 years old; during such a period of operation, emergency situations occurred more than once during flights. So, 14 years ago, when landing in Cairo, the plane hit its tail hard, after which it was under repair for a long time.
Aircraft accidents that occurred due to poor quality repairs or negligent inspection of aircraft are not very uncommon. Thus, on August 12, 1985, a Boeing 747 plane crash near Tokyo claimed the lives of 520 people. It turned out that the cause of the tragedy was a poorly carried out repair: the workers poorly welded the pressure frame, which fell off during the flight along with the elevators.
The plane became practically uncontrollable; the pilots kept the plane in the air for another half hour, managing to control the plane by decreasing and increasing engine thrust. However, the plane then crashed into a mountain.
According to an Egyptian technician who inspected the Airbus A321 before takeoff, it was completely intact.
The plane was shot down
The latest of the most popular versions. The plane could have been shot down by militants of the Islamic State terrorist group banned in Russia. There is currently a bloody war going on in the Sinai Peninsula between Egyptian government forces and the Islamic State.
It is possible that the militants fired a missile that shot down the plane. However, this version is contradicted by IS’s lack of appropriate means, because the airliners fly at an altitude of about 9-10 thousand meters. The only way to shoot down a plane is with a missile system.
However, the day before there was information that the plane did not have time to gain flight altitude, which means it could easily become a target for MANPADS. ISIS has already published a video showing a plane being shot down by a missile, but there are serious doubts about the authenticity of the recording.
Some conclusions can be drawn after the official investigation of the IAC and the decryption of the “black boxes”. As part of the investigation into the Airbus A321 crash, investigators seized documents on the aircraft's maintenance. In Samara, fuel samples were seized from the last refueling site of the aircraft, said Vladimir Markin, official representative of the Investigative Committee.
“The Russian Investigative Committee will check all possible versions that could lead to the tragedy, including a technical malfunction of the aircraft,” Markin said.
