Egypt crash dead flown to Russia

The bodies of 144 of the 224 victims killed when a Russian airliner crashed in Egypt’s Sinai desert have begun arriving back home in Saint Petersburg as Russian officials confirmed the aircraft broke up in the air, international media report

The Guardian reports that the remains of victims are to be taken in a motorcade to a crematorium in Saint Petersburg for identification, which will begin later on Monday. Family members have been providing DNA samples at a crisis centre close to the airport.

Aviation experts began to speculate that a sudden mechanical failure or a midair explosion could have been to blame for the accident

Investigators had rushed to the scene of the wreckage after the crash where 163 bodies had been recovered by Sunday afternoon.

The Guardian adds that some were found several miles away from the twisted and blackened remains of the Airbus A321, and that many personal effects were strewn about with the wreckage in the desert.

Victor Sorochenko, the head of Russia’s interstate aviation committee, said it was too early to draw firm conclusions but it was clear that the plane had broken up in flight on its way from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg.

According to experts this could indicate a bomb caused the disaster, although an explosive decompression from a technical failure is equally possible.

Reports add that the aircraft, built in 1997, suffered a tail strike in 2001, where the rear end of the plane touches the runway on takeoff. It underwent extensive repairs.

On Saturday, a militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt claimed responsibility for bringing down the Metrojet, or Kogalymavia, Airbus A321 “in response to Russian airstrikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land” – a reference to the aerial bombing campaign recently begun by Vladimir Putin.

However, Egypt and Russia both disputed the group’s claim, suggesting militants in northern Sinai, where Egypt has been fighting an Islamic insurgency, did not have the weaponry to down a flight at 9,000 metres (31,000ft).

The Guardian adds that the dead, including more than 20 children, were all Russian apart from four Ukrainians and one person from Belarus.