There was no disaster over Sinai. Anniversary of the Sinai disaster: “Someday this terrible dream will end...” . Events preceding the tragedy

The root causes of the tragedy in Sinai should perhaps be sought in the events of 14 years ago

We find out about most airlines in Russia when a disaster occurs. Until this moment, everything seems to be fine - planes are flying, passengers are not complaining, the state is vigilant. But the “golden” rule of an official - the main thing is not to work, but to create an appearance - alas, also applies in aviation. Let's see what the Kogalymavia airline is like, whose plane crashed in Sinai. And let's try to understand why it was even possible.

Kogalymavia began its first flights in 1993. At first, her clientele was monotonous - they were oil and gas workers, as well as everyone associated with the mining industry. The company's fleet consisted of two aircraft - Tu-134 and Tu-154, and the main flights were made back and forth between Kogalym, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk and, naturally, Moscow. They drove to other cities - Anapa, Baku, Volgograd, Kyiv, Mineralnye Vody, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Simferopol, Sochi - less often when a sufficient number of applications accumulated. Several Kogalymavia aircraft, along with their crews, were leased to the airline and operated flights in Iran.

It is not strange that the first owners of Kogalymavia were closely associated with LUKOIL (in fact, the abbreviation LUKOIL stands for Langepas, Urai, Kogalym - the company’s largest production regions at that time). But then the air carrier changed hands. According to Russian and foreign online publications, Kogalymavia now belongs to the Western Aviation Investment Company (ZAIC). This structure specializes in activities such as vehicle rental, installation, repair and maintenance services of pumps and compressors, and other special-purpose machines.

ZAIC has a clear Caucasian footprint. The company is owned by entrepreneurs Amirbek Gagaev, Buvaysar Khalidov (27.8% shares each) and Khamit Dzhankut Bagana (44.4%). The latter has Turkish citizenship and has been involved in the tourism business for more than 35 years. Moreover, he is a shareholder of the largest Turkish private airline Onur Air, which previously flew the crashed A321.

A turning point in the history of Kogalymavia occurred in 2009. The company purchased Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, and at the end of 2011 it completely stopped operating the aircraft. In May 2012, Kogalymavia rebranded and became known as MetroJet. What this was connected with is not clear. But, according to unofficial information that is being circulated among aviation business specialists, such a decision was made in connection with the interests of one of Kogalymavia’s partners - the tour operator BRISCO, which, as they say in the market, is Viskhan Tabulaev. He also runs ZAIC, whose office is located in the same business center as MetroJet. It is curious that BRISCO changed its name from Lagina Travel (as BRISCO was called since its founding in 2004) in the same 2012, when Kogalymavia became MetroJet. It is also worth noting that the tragic flight to Sharm al-Sheikh was carried out by order of Brisco. Its owner Viskhan Tabulaev simultaneously runs the Western Aviation Investment Company.

Such a close fusion of aviation and the tourist industry is found all over the world. And in our case, the tour operator and the carrier have common beneficiaries. In this case, this is the already mentioned Bagan and a native of Chechnya, Ismail Lepiev. Their common office may have been seen more than once by lovers of Antalya beaches: an elaborate box made of glass and concrete under the sign of the Prince Group. The tourism component of the holding, represented by Lepiev, is called Tourism Holding and Consulting CJSC (this system also includes the tour operator BRISCO)

In total, until recently, the MetroJet fleet consisted of 10 aircraft: two Airbus A320, seven A321 and one Canadair Challenger 850 (this is one of the largest business aircraft, allowing to transport from 13 to 19). The average age of the aircraft is 14 years.

The A321 that crashed was 18 years old. It was registered in Ireland. Its airworthiness certificate was valid until March 2016. For the first few years, he flew with the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines, then with the Saudi Arabian Airlines, then with the Turkish Onur Air (remember Hamit Jankut Bagan, the largest co-owner of ZAIC) and finally the Syrian Cham Wings Airlines.

Here it would be appropriate to quote the interview of the deputy general director of ThiK Zelimkhan ZARMAEV two years ago to the Biblio Globus portal. It is about an Airbus whose flight was tragically interrupted on Saturday morning.

METROJET, in order to fulfill its obligations to passengers during the tourist season, leased two AIRBUS A-321-200 aircraft in Ireland, submitting to the competent authority all the necessary documents for certification of air vehicles. The agency, in turn, did not allow airbuses to fly, demanding that aircraft be equipped with icing sensors. But this requirement is not justified.... Since the aircraft were already certified in Ireland, their registration by the Russian responsible agency should have become a purely formal procedure. However, we were faced with bureaucratic delays, from which, ultimately, the passengers of our airline suffered.

Passengers really suffered - a number of flights had to be postponed. For an airline recognized as “the most punctual” in 2012, this is truly an unusual problem. Unfortunately, while caring about punctuality, the aviators themselves seemed to periodically forget about safety. At least, Kogalymavia has had troubles more than once, sometimes with fatal consequences. In January 2010, at the Iranian Mashhad airport, his Tu-154 plane, during landing (which was carried out quite roughly), broke the landing gear and the tail was partially torn off. About 40 people were injured and the accident was attributed to adverse weather conditions.

In the spring of the same year, an Airbus A320 crashed at Domodedovo airport while flying to Hurghada. The cause was a problem with the hydraulic system. An alarm went off on board the airliner warning of low pressure in the system. The aircraft commander decided to return to the airport to ensure the safety of the aircraft.

At the beginning of 2011, a Tu-154B-2 of Kogalymavia airlines, while performing a flight to Surgut, burned out at Surgut airport. The fire occurred in the tail section of the plane while taxiing. One of the fuel tanks exploded and the entire fuselage burned down. As a result, three were killed and 40 people were injured. More details about this can be found in the adjacent material through the mouth of the leader of the Na-Na group, Bari Alibasov.

And finally on October 31, 2015. An Airbus A321 flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg crashed 100 km from El Arish in Egypt. The main version of the crash is a technical malfunction. An investigation will show whether this is so.

In the meantime, the Federal Service for Supervision of Transport has issued an order to Kogalymavia to suspend flights of A321 aircraft. According to Interfax, by November 2 the company must assess the condition of the Airbuses and all the risks associated with their flights.

But whether this will help is a big question. According to some information, the plane crashed almost 15 years ago, on November 16, 2001, and was involved in an accident at Beirut airport. It was then operated by the Lebanese MEA. He received a "tailstrike" or "tailstrike" on the runway. It underwent repairs and then flew on Saudi Arabian, Syrian and Russian-Turkish routes.

Just what is a “tail strike”? One of the worst "injuries" of an aircraft is when the vehicle comes into dangerous contact with the runway. This can happen both during takeoff and landing.

However, the A321 did not crash in the air. What does the “tail strike” have to do with it? Not so simple. Such an accident causes significant damage to the owner and puts the lives of passengers in danger.

But any damage to the aircraft, even if repaired, is like a cancerous tumor. Their consequences can manifest themselves many years after the accident and subsequent repair of the aircraft. Two cases can be cited - in 1985 on a Japan Airlines line, which killed 520 people, and in 2002 on a China Airlines plane, which caused the death of 224 passengers. Failure to properly repair the damage caused by the "tail strike" led to the subsequent destruction of the aircraft in mid-air.

As Oleg Smirnov, president of the Civil Aviation Partner Air Transport Infrastructure Development Fund, told MK, if the repair of an aircraft after a “tail strike” was carried out by qualified specialists, and parts and equipment were replaced with “original” or certified products, then accidents of any aircraft there will be no device. But if there is some kind of “forgery” for supposedly replaceable parts, then you can expect the worst. Including accidents decades later.”

In this regard, we recall a major disaster in 1979 in the United States, when on takeoff from Chicago O'Hare airport, due to the separation of the left engine from the pylon (suspension under the wing) of the left engine, the Douglas DC-10 plane crashed (271 people died and several people died). ground). The investigation revealed that after scheduled maintenance of the engine, mechanics installed it according to a simplified scheme, which caused microcracks at the mounting site.

Experts do not rule out that unscrupulous repairs of the A321 after the accident in 2001 caused its crash in 2015.

However, there are opinions that the crash of the Kogalymavia plane is “the average temperature in the hospital.” Air transport accidents in Russia are growing every year. This is largely due to the expansion of private passenger air routes in the mid-2000s. Over the past 10 years, according to some, more than 4,000 private jets and helicopters have been registered. Many people abroad can afford to buy a helicopter or a plane. In America, for example, there are about 750 thousand private aircraft.

But does Russia need this? Over Moscow, where the country's largest finances are concentrated, only the highest officials are allowed to fly in their own transport. In the regions, sometimes getting to your destination on regular routes is both cheaper and more convenient.

In this case, the question arises - is it possible to turn the system into some kind of uniformity. That is, there will be one, two or three (even up to a dozen) carriers and antimonopoly laws will not be violated. Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs Alexey Pushkov makes approximately this proposal. He proposed reducing the number of national air carriers to three. “I noticed that the disasters of the last 50 years are usually associated with medium-sized companies,” the parliamentarian notes.

At the same time, most problematic situations, including fatal accidents, are associated not only with the companies operating or servicing flights, but also with the aircraft fleet itself. According to Oleg Smirnov, until the end of the 1990s, our country used exclusively domestically produced aircraft - more than 13.5 thousand units. Now most airlines buy Boeings and Airbuses, which have been in operation from foreign carriers for at least 15-20 years. Almost all of them are registered in other countries - in the same Ireland, like the tragically lost A321, or on “islands where the tax system is much softer than in Russia.”

“We buy aircraft abroad, we train pilots in the same way, and we also import spare parts. We sell tickets in rubles. Accordingly, carriers have to save money. Including safety issues - repair and maintenance. The transition to reducing the number of air carriers, similar to the Soviet system, replacing the current private companies with state-owned ones, will not lead to an improvement in the situation. Now in Russia there are about 100 airlines of one level or another. During the year they transport just over 90 million people. There are approximately 1 thousand air carriers in the United States. And last year their passenger traffic exceeded 800 million. The leadership of our country needs to develop a new, more advanced aerification program. This will take many years - after all, over the past 25 years we have lagged behind the rest of the world in this business by half a century,” says Oleg Smirnov.

HOW ARE THEY?

The foreign passenger air transportation market is extremely vast. Thus, in the United States there are over fifty companies that provide passenger flights both within the country and abroad (excluding airlines that provide small aircraft for short trips). At the same time, there is no advantage in favor of one company. For example, in 2014, four companies - Delta Air Lines, United States Southwest Airlines, United States United Airlines and United States American Airlines - carried a total of 440 thousand passengers. Moreover, the first company accounted for 130 thousand, and the fourth from the list - 88 thousand.

The situation is similar in Europe, for example in France, where there are more than 20 carriers (however, the undisputed leader is Air France with 52 thousand passengers), in Germany (about 30 companies, the leader is Lufthansa with its subsidiaries and 60 thousand). passengers transported over the past year).

The striking exception here is perhaps Spain, where Iberia Airlines, privatized in 2001, absorbed a number of regional carriers, effectively monopolizing the domestic flight market. In 2010, it was announced that it would merge with British Airwaves, but both companies that formed the International Airlines Group continue to operate under their usual names. However, Vueling Airlines competes quite successfully with Iberia within the country.

In China, in turn, there is also a considerable choice of airlines, but the so-called “big three” traditionally stand out: China Southern Airlines, Air China and China Eastern Airlines. The first two accounted for a total of almost 120 thousand passengers last year.

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 plane of the 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 operating a 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, a decision was made 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, an improvised explosive device went off during the flight. 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 from relatives of the deceased statements limiting 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 of Russian structures refuse to discuss the issue of resuming air traffic 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.”

Today's disaster in Egypt has become the largest in terms of the number of victims in the history of modern Russia. Let us recall other serious losses in emergencies involving Russian aircraft:

170 people class="_">(160 passengers and 10 crew members) died on August 22, 2006 in a plane crash near the village of Sukhaya Balka (Donetsk region, Ukraine). The Tu-154 aircraft of Pulkovo Airlines was flying from Anapa to St. Petersburg. The cause of the disaster was the incorrect actions of the crew in difficult weather conditions, as a result of which the plane fell into a flat tailspin.

145 people class="_"> (136 passengers, 9 crew members) died on July 3, 2001 when a Tu-154 was landing at Irkutsk airport. The plane of the Vladivostok-Avia airline was flying Vladivostok – Irkutsk – Yekaterinburg. The cause of the disaster was recognized as the erroneous actions of the crew.

141 people class="_">, including 11 crew members, died on August 29, 1996 in the crash of a Tu-154M of Vnukovo Airlines, flying on the route Moscow - Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen). During landing, the plane crashed into Mount Opera, 14.2 km from the airport. The cause of the disaster was crew error.

125 people class="_">(116 passengers, 9 crew members and 1 person on the ground) died on January 3, 1994 near Irkutsk as a result of a Tu-154M plane crash of Baikal Airlines, which was flying to Moscow. 3.5 minutes after takeoff, one of its engines caught fire. The pilots turned the plane back to Irkutsk, but it lost control and crashed into a dairy farm. The cause of the disaster was said to be technical problems.

125 people class="_"> (120 passengers, 5 crew members) died on the night of July 9, 2006 when landing in Irkutsk Airbus A310 of Siberia Airlines, flying from Moscow. The plane skidded off the runway, crashed into nearby garages and exploded. The reason was the erroneous actions of the crew.

52 people class="_"> (46 passengers, 6 crew members) died on November 17, 2013 at Kazan International Airport. Boeing-737-500 operated a flight on the route Moscow – Kazan. The airliner crashed during landing. Among the dead are the son of the President of Tatarstan, the head of the FSB Directorate of Tatarstan and the family of the famous sports commentator Roman Skvortsov.

44 people class="_"> (36 passengers, 8 crew) died on September 7, 2011. The Yak-42 airliner was transporting the Lokomotiv hockey team from Yaroslavl to Minsk. During the takeoff run, the plane rolled off the runway and took off from the ground 400 meters beyond the end of the runway. The flight lasted several seconds: the airliner gained a height of no more than 5–6 meters, then collided with a radio beacon, crashed into the ground on the bank of the Tunoshonka River and exploded. Some of the debris and the tail fell into the river.

Two years ago, on October 31, 2015, an A-321 plane crashed over the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt). All 224 people on board were killed. 25 of them are children.

At the time of the tragedy, 48 people from the Leningrad region, including four children, were flying on flight 9268 from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. These are residents of the villages of Sovetsky, Gostilitsy, Romanovka, residents of Shlisselburg, Vsevolozhsk, Gatchina, Vyborg, Sosnovy Bor, Slantsy, Volkhov.

Has disappeared from the radar screens

At 7:14 a.m., the Kogalymavia airline A-321, flying from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt to St. Petersburg, disappeared from radar screens 20 minutes after takeoff. There are 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board. Of these, four are Ukrainians, one is Belarusian, and all the rest are Russians.

At 7:14 near Larnaca, according to preliminary data, communication with the plane was lost, and the aircraft's mark disappeared from the radar screens.

Rosaviatsia

Catastrophe

A couple of hours later, Egyptian authorities confirmed the crash of a Russian plane in central Sinai.

The liner was completely destroyed, its debris scattered over an area of ​​13 kilometers. 40 ambulances arrived at the crash site to evacuate victims of the disaster.

According to rescuers, the chances of finding survivors are extremely low.

Everyone died

Reuters reported four survivors. Hope quickly faded - official data arrived. Everyone died.

The smallest victim in terms of age, but not in importance, was 10-month-old Darina Gromova from Gatchina. Her photograph against the background of the liners, which the girl’s mother took before leaving for the Egyptian resort, will become a symbol of the Sinai tragedy.

The child looks at the planes standing on the ground. The caption under the photo is “Main Passenger.”

Darina's father and mother were also on board the A-321 and died along with her.

Grief and Unity

The tragedy left no one indifferent. In Pulkovo and to the Alexander Column, people brought flowers, letters of condolences and children's toys. There are so many of them that later hundreds of workers will be needed to remove all the spontaneous memorials.

Hundreds of balloons were released into the sky on Palace Square in memory of the victims.

About the causes of the disaster

Soon after the tragedy, different versions of what happened began to appear.

- Pilot error

The crew was commanded by 48-year-old Valery Nemov, who has over 12 thousand flight hours, of which more than 3,860 were on the Airbus A321. The aircraft was flown by experienced and highly qualified pilots. The version of pilot error was ruled out.

- Technical fault

Before departure, the aircraft underwent maintenance. No faults found.

- Terrorist attack

The head of the Russian FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, puts forward the first official version - the disaster occurred as a result of a terrorist attack.

A homemade explosive device with a capacity of up to 1 kg of TNT went off. Traces of explosives were found on the wreckage of the plane.

Later, the Russian side will announce a reward of $50 million for information about the terrorists.

The murder of our people in Sinai is among the bloodiest in terms of the number of crime victims. And we will not wipe away the tears from our souls and hearts. This will stay with us forever. But this will not stop us from finding and punishing the criminals.

Vladimir Putin

It is still unclear who ordered the terrible crime. No performers found. According to the most common version, the Sinai branch of the Islamic State (*terrorist organization banned in Russia) was behind the terrorist attack.

Putin: stop flights to Egypt until “the proper level of aviation safety is established”

In November 2015, Russian authorities completely blocked air traffic with Egypt. The remaining tourists in the Arab country were taken out at the end of their tours. Only hand luggage was allowed on board the plane; passengers' luggage was taken out on special flights of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Also, flights with Egypt were interrupted by Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and a number of German airlines.

"Kogalymavia"

In the spring of 2016, the Federal Air Transport Agency banned domestic and international flights of the airline, despite the fact that its involvement in the tragic incident had not been proven.

Relatives of those killed in the plane crash over Sinai have filed a class action lawsuit against the tour operator Kogalymavia airline in the amount of €1.4 billion.

Memory of an interrupted flight

On the eve of the second anniversary of the tragedy, October 28, a monument to the victims of the disaster was unveiled at the Serafimovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.

The monument was named “Folded Wings”. On one is the flight number, on the other is the date of the disaster. In front of them is a sarcophagus with a note: “To the crew members and passengers of flight 7K9268 who died at the hands of terrorists on October 31, 2015 in the skies over Sinai (Egypt).”

Meanwhile, today, October 31, a “Garden of Memory” was opened on Rumbolovskaya Gora in the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region for the victims of the terrorist attack. The memorial is a corridor made of metal plates on which the names of all the victims are carved.

The monument is surrounded by red-leaved maples. 25 fir trees are planted separately, they symbolize the memory of the dead children.

The Russian FSB classifies the incident as a terrorist attack, and the investigation is still ongoing. Air traffic between Russia and Egypt was stopped after the disaster and has not resumed to this day.

On October 31, 2015, a Russian aircraft Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia Airlines (Metrojet), operating flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, .

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 about the opportunity to take part in the investigation of the tragedy. A special commission of investigation was created, including: Russia, Egypt, France (the state of the aircraft’s developer), Germany (the state of the airliner’s manufacturer) 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 invited Russian specialists to participate in the investigation into the causes of the crash of a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula.

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.

On November 17, 2015, 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 a Russian plane, 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. He .

In turn, the Egyptian authorities urged not to rush to conclusions. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that as part of a criminal investigation.

In March 2016, the International Commission of Inquiry into the crash of the Russian A321 aircraft announced that it had received an official report from the Investigative Committee of Russia and transferred it to the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office to complete legal procedures. The commission itself, despite the transfer of the case to the investigative authorities of the country's state security, continued the technical examination of the wreckage of the airliner.

In mid-April, Egypt's Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek announced the transfer of the case of the Russian plane crash to the country's High 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 Senate of the US Congress, said that American intelligence has information about the involvement of the Egyptian group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which swore allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist movement banned in many countries, in the explosion on the Russian passenger plane A321. (an organization banned in the Russian Federation), and on August 4, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense announced the elimination of the leader of this terrorist group.

At the insistence of the Investigative Committee of Russia, an international commission to investigate the aviation accident. As a result of the work carried out, the fact of the influence of high-energy elements on the skin of the aircraft in the “inside-out” direction and “explosive decompression” in flight was established.

In October 2016, an investigation commission formed by the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office sent twelve pieces of the aircraft to a scientific alloys laboratory for a detailed study.

Work to determine the causes of the crash. To date, the parties have no understanding of what happened to the plane, how the explosive device got on board the plane, or who carried it. There are also no identified suspects or their accomplices from among the airport employees.