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Inquiry Into Egypt Plane Crash Hasn’t Found Evidence of Terrorism Egypt’s Inquiry Into Plane Crash Finds No Evidence of Terrorism
(about 3 hours later)
Investigators have not yet found any evidence to show that an “illegal or terrorist act” brought down the Russian jetliner that crashed on the Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31, but they are still looking, Egypt's chief investigator said in a statement released Monday. CAIRO — Egypt’s government placed itself directly at odds with Russian and Western allies on Monday, announcing that Egyptian investigators had found no evidence that the Russian airliner crash in Sinai on Oct. 31 was caused by terrorism.
Russia has said an explosive device was detonated on the airplane, and the Sinai branch of the Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the disaster. All 224 people on board the plane were killed, most of them vacationing Russians who were flying home to St. Petersburg from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. The government’s chief investigator, Ayman al-Muqaddam, said he had not received “any evidence of unlawful interference or terrorist activity” in connection with the crash, which occurred when a jetliner packed with Russian vacationers broke up in midair 23 minutes after takeoff from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.
The crash led Russia to suspend all flights to and from Egypt, dealing a heavy blow to the country’s tourism industry, a vital part of its economy. Although the statement offered ample detail about the investigation, such as the number of hours that investigators spent photographing the wreckage, and the number of helicopter trips they took to the remote site, it offered little explanation about the actual cause of the crash.
Ayman al-Muqaddam, the head of the investigatory committee looking into the disaster, said in a vaguely worded statement on Monday that the panel had completed a preliminary report on Sunday and that it was “continuing its work.” Russian and Western officials have been far less hesitant, pointing to a bomb as the most likely explanation. The Islamic State, which has an affiliate in Sinai, has claimed responsibility and published a photograph of an improvised explosive device it says was used.
He said that the search for wreckage extended more than 16 kilometers, about 10 miles, from the main crash site, and that all parties to the investigation, including Russian aviation experts and the company that insured the plane, had the chance to examine the wreckage. Egypt is leading the multinational investigation into the crash, and its publication of the preliminary report on Monday met with a curt response from Russia, which along with Britain have stopped all flights to Sharm el Sheikh until their concerns about security at the resort’s international airport are resolved.
Mr. Muqaddam said the committee was arranging with the Egyptian air force to move the wreckage to a safe location in Cairo for further study. He said the committee had already analyzed the plane’s 38 computers and two engine computers, but was still combing through technical data about the plane and its repair history. A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, declined to comment on the Egyptian report but pointedly reminded reporters that Russia’s security services had “come to the conclusion that it was a terrorist action.”
A spokesman for the Russian government, Dmitry Peskov, did not comment directly on the Egyptian statement, but reminded reporters that Russian experts had already concluded that the crash “was a terrorist action.” From the start, the Egyptian-led investigation has been mired in a fog of secrecy, misinformation and contradiction. Apparently unwilling to publicly concede that terrorists may have penetrated such a sensitive target, Egyptian officials ruled out a bomb as a possible cause. Pro-government media outlets painted the assertions of terrorism as part of what they called a nefarious Western plot to weaken the president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
The aircraft, an Airbus A321-200 operated by Metrojet, was manufactured in 1997 and owned by an Irish leasing company. The technical investigation of the crash includes experts from Egypt, Russia, France (where Airbus is based) and Ireland. Yet some Egyptian officials have indirectly acknowledged the possibility of a bomb, either through loud denunciations of terrorism or the announcement of new measures to secure the country’s airports.
The Egyptian authorities are also investigating whether security had been compromised at the Sharm el Sheikh airport. That investigation has focused on baggage handlers, their security supervisors and workers involved in aircraft catering, security officials have said. Egyptian officials seem caught between a desire to deny the possibility that the Islamic State’s Sinai affiliate could have hit such a sensitive target, and the pressing need to assuage the security concerns of foreign allies such as Britain and Russia. Their tourist dollars constitute an important part of the faltering Egyptian economy.
Egypt is suffering a shortage of foreign currency, and a ban on flights by Britain and Russia into Sharm el Sheikh is costing the country roughly $280 million a month, the tourism minister, Hisham Zaazou, said this month.
Russian officials, too, initially denied Islamic State claims that it had felled the plane in retaliation for the Russia air campaign in Syria. But on Nov. 17 the Kremlin security chief blamed terrorism and offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.
President Vladimir V. Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible, although he did not blame any specific group. “We will find them in any part of the world and punish them,” he said.
Russian officials said they had discovered traces of explosives on the wreckage of the Airbus A321, which was strewn over a 10-mile radius in the Sinai Desert. The Islamic State published a photograph of what it claimed was the explosive device used to bring down the plane: a bomb hidden in a Schweppes pineapple soda can.
Terrorism experts could not confirm the veracity of the photograph, but noted that a midair breakup, caused by a rapid decompression, would be consistent with a bomb. Other causes, such as mechanical failure, were still possible although now appear less likely.
Fear that an explosive device had been placed aboard the plane while it was parked at Sharm al Sheikh airport was partly behind the Russian and British decision to suspend flights there. The Egyptian government said Monday it was hiring a foreign company to help improve security at its airports.
Large tour operators in Europe that sell winter breaks in Egypt have diverted customers to other destinations such as Cyprus and the Canary Islands. Mr. Zaazou, the Egyptian tourism minister, said he expected tourism revenue to drop by 15 percent in 2015, to $6.2 billion, because of the crisis.