A Russian passenger plane carrying over 220 people has crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has said. In a latest development, Egyptian authorities report that there are no survivors in the Russian plane crash.
Rescuers had earlier found over 100 bodies at crash site.
A statement from the prime minister’s office said that a cabinet level crisis committee had been formed to deal with the crash. The reports said that the plane was carrying 217 passengers and seven crew. The wreckage of the plane lanes have spotted wreckage of the plane.
“Military planes have discovered the wreckage of the plane… in a mountainous area, and 45 ambulances have been directed to the site to evacuate dead and wounded,” the statement said.
There were no indications that the passenger plane that crashed Sinai peninsula was shot down, Egyptian security sources said.
The Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said in a statement that flight 9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 06:51 Moscow time (03:51 GMT) and was due into St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport at 12:10.
The authority added that the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off and disappeared from the radar.
The plane requested an emergency landing before disappearing, the Interfax report said. Aircraft crew members had previously complained about the state of one engine, the RIA Novosti agency reported.
Quoting an eyewitness at the scene, the Sputnik news agency said that the plane was completely destroyed and that all the passengers had been killed. Those on board the flight were Russian tourists, including 17 children, it said.
According to FlightRadar24, the plane was descending steeply in its final minutes.
Flight #7K9268 was descending with about 6000 feet per minute just before signal was lost
https://t.co/RlcJTpDHwI pic.twitter.com/T4Wq78bhyi
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) October 31, 2015
Metrojet flight #7K9268 disappeared over Egypt 23 min after departure from Sharm el-Sheikh
https://t.co/RlcJTpDHwI pic.twitter.com/Pb2IrXElTk
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) October 31, 2015
Our thoughts and prayers are with passengers and crew members of Metrojet flight #7K9268
— Jet Airways (@jetairways) October 31, 2015
Metrojet had a fatal incident in 2011, when one of its planes caught fire on a runway in Surgut Airport in Russia’s Urals. Three people died and 40 were injured as the plane burned out in just 10 minutes.
The last large-scale Russian airline incident happened in November 2013, when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashed at Kazan International Airport while attempting to land. Fifty people died in the incident.