Metrojet rules out technical fault in Egypt Sinai plane crash

The Russian airline whose passenger plane crashed on Saturday in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has insisted that a technical fault could not have caused the disaster.

Alexander Smirnov, the deputy general director of Kogalymavia, which operates flights under the name Metrojet, said on Monday that the disaster was most likely caused by an external “impact”.

“The only plausible reason can be a mechanical impact on the plane,” Smirnov told a press conference.

“There is no combination of system failures that could cause the plane to be destroyed in the air,” he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Investigators from several countries have joined an Egypt-led probe to determine what brought down Russian airline Kogalymavia’s flight 9268 on Saturday, killing all 224 people on board, en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg.

Russian officials said on Monday the plane broke apart in mid-flight, as international investigators began probing the reasons behind the crash.

“It is too early to speak about the crash causes,” said the Chief of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee, Viktor Sorochenko, after examining the site of the wreckage, according to the TASS news agency.