Russian Metrojet Flight Broke Apart at High Altitude

Russia mourns, experts and search teams are on
the scene of the Metrojet Flight 7K9268 crash in
Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula . They are looking for pieces of
the Russian aircraft and recovering the bodies of the
224 passengers and crew who died, as the
investigation into the cause of the crash commences,
the Associated Press reported .
The Airbus A321-200 was at 31,000 feet, just 23
minutes into a flight from the Red Sea resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, Russia, when, according to
Alexander Neradko, head of Russia's federal aviation
agency, it broke up at high altitude, scattering
wreckage over six square miles, the AP said. Neradko,
who is part of a multi-agency team inspecting the
crash site, would not speculate about the crash’s
cause, due to the ongoing investigation.
As the AP revealed, there seems to be differing
perspectives on the aircraft’s condition prior to
takeoff.
An Egyptian ground service official who was part of
the crew who conducted the preflight inspection told
the news service, "We are all shocked. It was a good
plane. Everything checked out in 35 minutes," the
official, who remained anonymous because he wasn’t
allowed to talk to the media, added that the closest
this jet came to trouble was three months ago when the pilot
aborted takeoff due to a system error. "That's almost routine
though," he said.
However, as reported yesterday by the AP, Russian TV quoted co-
pilot Sergei Trukhachev’s wife, who said their daughter "called him
up before he flew out. He complained before the flight that the
technical condition of the aircraft left much to be desired."
An Egyptian official had said, per the AP, that the pilot told air
traffic controllers that he was having technical trouble and was
going to attempt a landing at the nearest airport before contact
was lost. Then there are theories that the Metrojet flight was brought down
by malicious action.
Alexander Fridlyand, expert and head of Moscow’s aviation
research center, said in a televised interview, per the AP, that the
plane’s sudden drop in altitude could mean a bomb exploded in
the luggage compartment.
A local Islamic State affiliate did make a statement on social media
that they had “brought down” the aircraft. But as the AP explained, there was no supporting evidence provided, and the militants are
not known to have the capability to take down a plane at cruising
altitude.
Fridlyand also presented the possibility that the plane’s power
system malfunctioned, which could have caused a fire or both
engines to shut down, the AP said.
Alexander Smirnov, Metrojet's deputy director, countered this,
saying on TV, per the AP, "An engine failure doesn't lead to
catastrophe,” he asserted on television. Smirnov called the A321
“reliable” and said automatic systems would compensate for crew
mistakes.
But Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi insisted the cause of
the crash might not be known for months.
"It's very important that this issue is left alone and its causes are
not speculated on," he told a group of top government officials,
military members and security forces. The investigation "will take a
long time" and "needs very advanced technologies," he said,
according to the AP.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa, Air France, Emirates and Qatar Airways
have announced that their jets will not fly over the crash area until
the cause is known, according to the AP.
Sunday saw Russia's air-safety regulator order Moscow-based
Metrojet to suspend flights temporarily, the AP said. But Metrojet
is continuing to operate the six remaining A321s, saying, per the
AP that this order meant each jet would be checked individually
and allowed to keep flying if it passed inspection.                                                                                reported by Travel pulse.