ISMAILIA/CAIRO: A Russian airliner carrying 224 passengers and crew crashed in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on Saturday, the Egyptian civil aviation authority said, and a security officer who arrived on the scene said all aboard the plane were probably dead.
RIA News Agency, quoting a Russian Aviation Authority source, said the plane was carrying 7 crew, 200 adult passengers and 17 children.
The Airbus A-321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia with registration number KGL-9268, was flying from the Sinai Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg in Russia when it went down in a desolate mountainous area of central Sinai soon after daybreak, the aviation ministry said.
It took off at 5:51 a.m. Cairo time (0351 GMT) and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes later, Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement.
The plane was completely destroyed and all those on board are likely to have died, the Egyptian security officer who arrived at the scene told Reuters by telephone.
Egyptian security sources said there was no indication that the Airbus jet had been shot down or blown up.
Sinai-based militants who support Islamic State have killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police and have also attacked Western targets in recent months.
After delays caused by poor weather conditions, Egyptian search and rescue teams located the site of the crash in the Hassana area 35 km (22 miles) south of the Sinai Mediterranean coastal city of Al Arish, the aviation ministry statement said.
The plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9,400 meters) when it vanished from radar screens, it said. Rescue service sources said so far five ambulances had managed to reach the venue of the crash.
An article uploaded on Wikipedia about the air crash said the Airbus A321 was owned and leased from AerCap and was 18 years old at the time of the incident.
“The aircraft was initally delivered to Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines on 25 May 1997. It was transferred to Kolavia in March 2012 and then to Metrojet in May 2012. The aircaft was powered by two IAE V2533 engines and configured to carry 220 passengers in an economy configuration,” the article said.
Russian airliner with 224 on board crashes in Sinai
Russian airliner with 224 on board crashes in Sinai
Turkish and Greek leaders set for talks on migration, maritime borders
- Fifteen migrants died in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Chios last week after their boat collided with a Greek coast guard vessel and sank in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish coast
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will host Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday for talks likely to focus on migration and longstanding maritime disputes, as the NATO allies and historic rivals try to build on warming ties.
Fifteen migrants died in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Chios last week after their boat collided with a Greek coast guard vessel and sank in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish coast.
Mitsotakis will be accompanied by ministers responsible for foreign affairs, finance, development and migration, Greek officials said.
Developments in the Middle East, Iran and Ukraine, migration, trade and organized crime are also likely to be on the agenda.
Greek Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lana Zochiou said on Tuesday the aim was “to assess the progress of bilateral cooperation” and “to keep communication channels open to defuse any potential crises.”
Turkiye is a transit country for migrants seeking to reach the European Union via Greece. Ankara says the EU has not fully delivered on commitments under a 2016 migration deal and Athens wants Turkiye to do more to curb irregular crossings.
Despite a thaw in rhetoric since a 2023 declaration on friendly relations, the neighbors are at odds over maritime boundaries in the Aegean, an area widely believed to hold energy resources and with implications for airspace and military activity.
Ankara said last month it had issued a maritime notice urging Greece to coordinate research activities in areas of the Aegean that Turkiye considers part of its continental shelf.
Greece’s foreign minister had said Athens planned to extend its territorial waters further, including potentially in the Aegean.
In 1995, Turkiye’s parliament declared a casus belli — a cause for war — should Greece unilaterally extend its territorial waters beyond six nautical miles in the Aegean, a stance Athens says violates international maritime law. Greece says it wants only to discuss demarcation of maritime zones.
