Airbus a321 accident. Lost flight: what is known about the causes of the A321 crash a year later. Search and rescue operations begin

"Nevskie Novosti" compiled a chronicle of the events of the Russian plane crash passenger plane Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia airlines

It is known that the Airbus A321 reached an altitude of 33,500 feet (10,210 meters) and a speed of 404 knots (748 km/h). At 7:13 the plane's speed suddenly dropped to 184 knots (341 km/h). After this, the speed dropped to 93 knots (172 km/h), and the altitude dropped to 28 thousand 375 feet (8,649 meters). Then the plane disappeared from radar and flight parameters became unavailable.

Versions about what happened to flight 7K9268 varied : the head of Egypt's air safety agency said that the Russian airliner of the Kogalymavia company most likely continues to fly in the Turkish region, and the Prime Minister of Egypt, on the contrary, the plane crashed.

Search and rescue operations begin:

At about 12 o'clock flight 7K9268 arrived at Pulkovo.

Around one o'clock in the afternoon it became known that the wreckage of the Airbus-321 airliner, flight 9268 "Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg" and owned by the Kogalymavia airline, was found in Egypt. It was reported that .

Then, at 13:00, Egyptian rescuers of the first victims of the disaster and the authorities sent 45 ambulances to the crash site.

At 14:20 it became known that there were 27 children on board the plane.

At about 3 p.m. it turned out that to a crashed plane was, and it was operated by five different airlines.

At about 4 p.m., the tour operator Briscoe, which ordered this plane,...

At about 18:00 the head of the Ministry of Labor announced the payment of compensation to the families of the victims in the amount of 2 million rubles.

Today It also became known that the Airbus black boxes and Russian specialists, together with Egypt, have already begun to decipher them.

There is still not a single reliable video or even photo from the site of the Russian plane crash in Egypt. The airliner crashed in a special zone, access to which is limited by the authorities due to a simmering conflict with local armed groups.

"Airbus A-321" of the carrier "Metrojet" - this is the company "Kogalymavia" - was operating a flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The plane disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after takeoff. In the first hours, conflicting information was received about the fate of the airliner, but now we know for sure - the airbus crashed, there were no survivors. There were 224 people on board - seven crew members and 217 passengers. Such a number of victims in Russian history civil aviation hasn't happened yet.

Airbus Flight 9268 flew for only 23 minutes. Much longer - several hours after it disappeared from radar - conflicting information about the fate of the liner came. It was not immediately possible to create a more or less clear picture of what happened in the skies over Sinai.

Sharm el-Sheikh Airport, 5 hours 51 minutes local time (6.51 Moscow time). Airbus "Kogalymavia" is charter airline, known under the Metrojet brand, took off and is heading for St. Petersburg. There were almost no empty seats left. An experienced crew commander - 12 thousand flight hours, a third of which were on an Airbus 321. Almost immediately after takeoff, he discovered some problems on board, contacted the ground, reported the malfunctions, and asked for permission to land at the nearest airfield. At this point the session ended, and the Airbus did not make contact again. By 7:14 am Moscow time, the plane was lost by radar.

“At 7.14 I was supposed to establish a communication session with Larnaca, the Republic of Cyprus. Radio communication with the plane did not take place, it was lost. The mark on the radio radars of the dispatch services also disappeared. There were 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board the plane, mostly Russian citizens.” , - said the press secretary of the Federal Air Transport Agency Sergei Izvolsky.

According to updated data in recent hours, there were also three citizens of Ukraine and one of Belarus on board. Judging by data from the Internet resource Flytradar, the last thing the earth recorded was that the plane dropped about two kilometers in altitude a minute before disappearing from the screens. The speed also dropped sharply: from almost 750 kilometers per hour, first to 350, and then to 170 kilometers per hour! This is the last thing the transponder transmitted, and these numbers are beyond critical. Big liner at such a low speed it simply cannot stay in the air. Moreover, according to witnesses who observed the crash of the Airbus, its engine seemed to be on fire.

The plane had already crashed - it fell in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, 35 kilometers from the city of El-Arish, and the press and news agencies continued to pour out contradictory messages. Someone immediately declared the plane crashed. Then information came that he allegedly got in touch again. Then all the confusing references to Egyptian dispatchers appeared, who allegedly claimed that they had handed over the Airbus to their Turkish colleagues. But this information was not confirmed either.

Closer to noon, it became clear that the plane did not leave Egyptian airspace. The Prime Minister of this country canceled all trips, convened emergency meeting and announced that the plane had crashed after all. A state of emergency has been declared in Sinai. And finally, in the afternoon, it was officially announced: the wreckage had been found.

“We have sent a working group of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to the scene of the crash. It will conduct an investigation, this is a standard procedure. Of course, we are in constant contact with the Russian ambassador,” said Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail.

Those who were the first to see the crash site with their own eyes conveyed news that finally buried hope: the liner was completely destroyed, there was no chance of finding survivors. After another half hour, rescuers began to remove the bodies of the dead from the rubble. They will be delivered to Cairo, and from there they will be transported to Russia. Search efforts are complicated by the mountainous terrain and the fact that the fallen airliner was literally scattered around the area.

An Egyptian security officer described a terrible scene to Reuters: "I am witnessing a tragic scene. There are many dead bodies lying on the ground, many of them fastened with seat belts in their seats. The plane is split into two parts. The first - a small tail part - is burned, the second - the large front part crashed into the rock. We have already recovered 100 bodies, the rest are still under the rubble. We heard dozens of phones ringing that belonged to the dead, our officers collected them in a bag."

The crashed Airbus 321 was in operation for about 19 years - this is quite acceptable in civil aviation; another question is how the aircraft was maintained. This particular aircraft served for several years in airlines in the countries of the Middle East region: Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria. The Russian Kogalymavia acquired it in 2012.

Experts are looking into the causes of the tragedy, but photographs of the people remain. Photos of those who flew from Egypt, returned from vacation on flight 9268. And before takeoff, he managed to leave publications on social networks with the following caption, for example: “Hello, Peter, goodbye, Egypt. We are flying home.”

The death of aircraft A-321, operating flight 9268 from Egyptian Sharm el-Sheikh to Pulkovo with 217 passengers and seven crew members on board, became the largest aviation disaster in the history of Russia and the USSR. In the Soviet Union, the worst air accident occurred in the Uchkuduk area on July 10, 1985. Then, as a result of the crash of a Tu-154 flying from Karshi to Leningrad, 191 passengers and nine crew members were killed.

From the very beginning, the death of flight 9268 of the Kogalymavia company (Metrojet) was accompanied not only by unverified information, but also by outright fabrications. In the first hours after the tragedy, Arab news agencies reported, citing some rescuers operating at the crash site, that the A-321 fell apart into two large parts and groans and requests for help were even heard from the tail. A little later, some representatives of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack on board Russian plane. This statement was immediately picked up by foreign and some domestic media.

On the fateful day, Airbus A-321 took off from the Egyptian airport at 6:51 Moscow time (3.51 GMT), but already at 7.14 (4.14) it did not contact Larnaca airport, and a few seconds earlier the flight disappeared from radar screens.

As a result of the search and rescue operations that began, it was established that the wreckage of the plane, scattered over an area of 16 to 20 square kilometers, had characteristic signs that the Airbus had collapsed in the air. Let us recall that the wreckage of the Malaysian Boeing 777, which was traveling on flight MH-17 and died over the south-east of Ukraine, was spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometers. Already on November 1, the Federal Air Transport Agency and the Interstate Aviation Committee confirmed that the destruction of the A-321 occurred while still in the air.

At this moment, despite the fact that the flight recorders, also known as “black boxes,” were not only found by rescuers, but are already being decrypted, data on the flight parameters of the A-321 Kogalymavia is available only from the FlightRadar24 Internet service.

At 7.12 (4.12) the plane was at an altitude of 10,200 meters (33,500 feet), continuing to climb in order to reach the flight level to Pulkovo Airport. The flight speed was approximately 750 kilometers per hour (just over 400 knots), and the vertical speed was constant. But exactly at 7.13 (4.13) the flight speed dropped to 170 kilometers per hour (just over 20 knots) and, according to calculations by the aviation-safety.net resource (the diagram was obtained as a result of processing FR24 data), the vertical speed became equal to 6000 feet per minute or 30.48 meters per second (a negative reading means the plane is descending). This was no longer a decline or a dive, but actually a fall. At this point, the A-321, having lost 5,000 feet, was at an altitude of about 8,600 meters (28,375 feet).

And then something strange begins. In a matter of seconds (from 07.13.00 to 07.13.22), the vertical speed of the liner rose to 4000 feet per minute (20.3 m/s), then dropped again to 6000, but then sharply increased to 4000 feet per minute. The plane went up. But not having time to gain the lost hundreds of meters, the liner began to fall again at a vertical speed of 6,500 feet per minute (33 m/s). And again the fall gave way to a sharp climb. From 13/07/15 to 13/07/19 the vertical speed increased to 9000 feet per minute (45 m/s). The Airbus went into a sharp climb, which at 07.13.22 again ended in a fall, during which, most likely, the plane began to crumble.

To summarize, for 22 seconds the plane actually tried to stop its fall and begin to climb, stalling each time. But then its vertical speed increased to such levels that the vehicle reached maximum angles of attack and, accordingly, prohibitive overloads. Next - the fall and destruction of A-321.

Note that the given vertical speed indicators were obtained from processing data from the FlightRadar24 service and in reality could be lower.

There was a report in the media that the plane's crew allegedly turned to air traffic controllers for help. According to some sources, he reported some kind of malfunction, according to others, he requested permission to land. But both Egyptian and Russian authorities deny that such a conversation took place.

In the first hours after the tragedy, evidence emerged that the deceased A-321 had engine problems, which the pilots repeatedly reported to their management. True, on the evening of October 31, representatives of the carrier stated that there were no complaints, the airliner underwent all routine maintenance in a timely manner.

The Military-Industrial Courier observer was able to communicate with employees and personnel of companies operating similar passenger liners, as well as representatives of Russian government bodies responsible for control in the aviation sector.

Most of the interlocutors unequivocally stated that they would not draw conclusions at least until the transcripts of the flight recorders were announced, but agreed to provide explanations on the already existing facts.

But a mechanical failure of the rudders or stabilizer could only lead to the plane crashing. Kit

Judging by aviation-safety.net, although there was a sharp decrease in speed, one can hardly talk about problems or failure of one of the IAE V2500 engines. In this case, the plane could not climb several times before falling. According to one of the representatives of the airline - the operator of the A-321, this at least indicates that not only the power plants maintained traction, but also the automatic propulsion system worked.

We can say that for 22 seconds the autopilot of the airliner tried to fend off something that, according to one of the interlocutors, “was almost impossible to fend off.” But then, instead of stabilizing the airliner, the automation, unable to cope, sent the plane into a sharp climb, which led to prohibitive overloads, reaching critical angles of attack, stalling (possibly a spin) and structural destruction.

The reasons for the impact that led to the death of the Airbus could be either mechanical problems with the elevators or stabilizer, or a failure of the automation itself, also known as the EDCS (electronic remote control system). It is possible that the pilots, faced with a malfunction in the control system, tried to hold the plane on their own, countering the impact.

heights in this case are unrealistic. And even a partial failure of the control system causes the occurrence of so-called self-oscillations, to which the above data on vertical speed are very similar.

True, almost all those interviewed questioned the possibility of a failure of the EMDS, pointing out that this had not happened during the operation of the A-321, and that the Airbus control system itself was very reliable and its most important elements were duplicated.

Industry representatives were also quite skeptical about the possible destruction of the aircraft by anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as the detonation of a device placed on board by terrorists. A missile hit, as shown by the example of the Malaysian Boeing 777, would lead to instant destruction of the structure and the fall of the remains of the aircraft over a sufficiently large area, the same can be said about the use of IEDs.

The tragedy of flight 9268 is still awaiting investigation. While the data from the flight recorders has not been published, debris is being collected. The remains of the A-321 are laid out ahead, but now not only experts of varying degrees of awareness, but even various officials are drawing attention to the fact that the crashed airliner outlived four owners and the car is already 18 years old - there is no place for such things in the fleets of Russian carriers, the domestic aviation industry must be raised .

The A-321 is the largest aircraft of the A-320 family, which is considered the record holder for the number of aircraft produced and in operation. "Three hundred and twenty-first" is capable of transporting from 170 to 220 passengers over a distance of up to 5,600 kilometers. At the same time, the Superjet carries from 98 to 108 passengers with a range of just over three thousand kilometers (or 4,500 in the Long Range version). Theoretically, the newest Russian MS-21, the first flight of which has not yet taken place, should have close indicators to the “three hundred and twenty-first” put into operation in 1994. Tu-204/214, also capable of carrying over 200 passengers over a range of six to seven thousand kilometers (depending on the model), is operated by only a few airlines (the most big park SLO "Russia" and "Red Wings" have 12 and 8 cars, respectively).

Alas, one thing is already clear: the tragedy of flight 9268 will be used for all sorts of loud statements for a long time, and the rise of the domestic aviation industry requires painstaking, hard work.

The A321 plane crash over Sinai, which occurred on October 31, 2015, became the most major disaster on the territory of Egypt and the largest tragedy in aircraft crashes. The Airbus A321-231 aircraft, owned by the Kogalymavia company, was used by the tour operator Briscoe and carried tourists on flight 9268 Sharm al-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The crash killed 224 people

Flight details

Airplane

Airbus A321-231 was produced in 1997. The vessel was then handed over to the owner, the leasing corporation ILFC, which leased it to MEA (Lebanon). The airliner was assigned the number F-0HMP, its capacity was 149 people. In Lebanon it was used for 6 years and was returned to ILFC in 2003.

Fact. During its use at MEA, one failure occurred - when landing in Egypt, the pilots raised the nose of the aircraft too high, and the tail touched the runway. After this, the aircraft was repaired.

In 2003, the aircraft was again leased to Onur Air Corporation (Türkiye). The ship's board was modernized, its capacity increased to 220 people. In 2007, the airliner was subleasing to Saudi Arabian Airlines ( Saudi Arabia), and in 2010 - Cham Wings (Syria). In 2012, the airliner was leased to Kogalymavia LLC.

According to the leasing company, the aircraft was maintained at a level that complied with the standards, and technical control and inspections were carried out on time. On October 26, 2015, a weekly technical inspection was carried out, and on March 18, 2014, the aircraft underwent factory control. Over all the years of use, the airliner has exhausted 46-48% of its nominal life of scheduled flights.

Crew and passengers

The ship was staffed by a Russian crew, including:

2 experienced pilots,
5 flight attendants.

Among the passengers who were on board the plane at the time of the disaster were 192 people. adults and 25 children. The oldest of them was 77 years old, the youngest girl was 10 months old. All people died in the crash. Photos of the dead were posted on several official websites.

List of passengers killed over Sinai

Most of the victims of the disaster lived in the northwestern regions of the Russian Federation; there were also 4 citizens of Ukraine and 2 from Belarus on the plane.

The list of those killed in the plane crash included:

A. Kopylov – deputy head of the Pskov city administration,
D. Gromova (10 months), whose photo became a symbol of the plane crash.

Chronology of events

Preceding circumstances

On October 30, 2015, Airbus A321-231 made 2 normal flights on the planned routes: Sharm al-Sheikh-Samara-Sharm al-Sheikh. The final disembarkation of passengers at the airport was completed at 15:30, and representatives of the crew who carried it out had no complaints about the condition of the equipment. The vessel underwent scheduled maintenance, and on the morning of October 31, 2015, a new crew took over (V. Nemov and S. Trukhachev), and preparations began for subsequent voyages - Sharm al-Sheikh-St. Petersburg-Sharm al-Sheikh.

The Kogalymavia company was a member of the international united holding company specializing in tourism - TH&C, which also included the Brisco company, which ordered a flight from Egypt to the Northern capital.

Catastrophe

At 5:50 local time in Egypt (6:50 Moscow time), the plane took off from Sharm al-Sheikh airport, headed north along the shore of the bay and gradually rose to 6.4 km. After 12 minutes of flight, the plane turned left to bypass the Sinai Peninsula and reach the Mediterranean, the pilots intended to gain an altitude of 9.75 km.

In the 23rd minute of the flight, the airliner picked up a speed of 755 km/h and climbed 9.4 km when the situation left the normal mode. The ship began to fall at a speed of 1.8 km/min. At 04:13 GES, the flight recorder recording was interrupted due to extraneous noise. After 24 minutes of flight, the plane crashed in Sinai and was instantly destroyed.

Search services found remains of the disaster among mountain ranges peninsula 50 km from the city of Nehel. The wreckage of the plane and fragments of the bodies of the dead were scattered within a radius of 13 km, in the territory with total area 30 km.

Reaction

President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin expressed words of condolences to the loved ones and relatives of the victims of the tragedy. To the Head of Government D.A. Medvedev was charged with creating a commission to investigate the causes of the plane crash. V. Putin called for finding and eliminating the terrorists responsible for the tragedy.

Condolences were expressed to the loved ones and relatives of the victims, as well as to all Russians:

presidents and prime ministers of more than 50 countries,
Pope,
general secretaries,
heads of religious communities of the Russian Federation.

For relatives dead passengers“hot lines” were opened: by telephone one could find out all the information about affected loved ones.

The scandalous French magazine Charlie Hebdo published three cartoons on its pages illustrating the plane crash, which caused sharp negative criticism from the Russian leadership and the public. The illustrations were called "blasphemous", "cruel" and "mocking towards the victims of the tragedy."

Fact. Representatives of the French Foreign Ministry responded that all journalists have the right to freely express personal opinions, but they do not always coincide with the position of the country's official leaders.

On November 20, 2015, the UN Security Council issued a statement condemning the terrorist attacks, including the disaster over Sinai.

Mourning

November 1, 2015 became a day of mourning for Russians. IN Northern capital three days of mourning took place, Leningrad region- four days.

Investigation into the causes of the Sinai tragedy

The investigation into the plane crash was carried out jointly by several countries, including Egypt and the Russian Federation, as well as representatives of Airbus and IASA.

On November 1, 2015, the investigation began: analysis of the information contained in the on-board recording devices, which practically survived, and examination of the remains of the victims. In Russia, a case was initiated under articles 263 and 238 of the Criminal Code of Russia.

The fact that the remains of the airliner were found in a large area of about 30 km allowed us to conclude that the tragedy occurred at a high altitude.

On November 7, 2015, the official leadership of Egypt spoke about the results of the decoding, from which it followed that extraneous loud sounds were heard at the end of the recording. At the end of the flight, an altitude of 9.415 km and a speed of about 520 km/h were recorded; the ship was moving under the guidance of an automatic pilot, who needed to gain altitude.

At that time, several versions of the causes of the plane crash were voiced:

wear and tear of aircraft equipment;
fuel tank ignition;
damage to the aircraft's lithium battery.

On November 16, 2015, information was received that the plane crashed due to a terrorist attack - an IED located at the rear of the airbus with a total capacity of 1 kg of TNT went off. This conclusion was made after residues of explosive substances not made in Russia were found on fragments of the plane, personal belongings and bodies of the victims.

Fact. On November 17, 2015, a public announcement was posted that a cash reward of $50 million would be paid for assistance in capturing the terrorists responsible for the plane crash.

Analysis of the remains of the aircraft showed that the IED went off in the rear of the ship, in rows 30-32.

On December 14, 2015, a special commission organized by the Egyptian leadership announced the completion of the investigation into the plane crash and the readiness of the report on it. It indicated that in the process of analyzing the causes of the tragedy, nothing was found indicating a terrorist attack. This is explained by the fact that in the opposite case, the indirect cause of the disaster would have been a flaw in the Egyptian airport security service.

At the beginning of 2016, the current head of Egypt admitted that the airliner crashed as a result of a terrorist attack.

Cause of the disaster

On November 3, 2015, it became known from sources in the US defense department that an American satellite noticed a bright flash corresponding to the location and time of the Airbus A321 accident. No evidence of being hit by the missile was recorded, as a temperature trace would have been observed. Ignition in the air indicated that the tragedy could not have occurred during landing.

A few days after the plane crash, one of the terrorist groups within ISIS announced its involvement in the incident. However, the official leadership of Egypt cited equipment malfunction as the alleged cause of the tragedy.

A number of media representatives, Russian and Egyptian heads of transport departments rejected the explosion hypothesis, calling it propaganda.

On November 5, 2015, the intelligence services of the United States and Great Britain supported the unofficial version of terrorist act based on information intercepted from ISIS militants about a bomb being planted on a plane.

According to the assumptions of foreign intelligence services, expressed by various media, the IED was installed by terrorists subordinate to ISIS in the luggage compartment just before departure.

11/16/2015 at the Council of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin's version of the explosion of a homemade device was confirmed by the head of the Russian FSB A. Bortnikov.

On September 13, 2016, a special commission determined exactly where the bomb was located: in the department oversized luggage in the tail of the plane. To install the IED, the militants used the help of an employee of the Sharm al-Sheikh airport: just before the flight, a package with an explosive was planted, after which it was covered with strollers and suitcases.

Consequences of the disaster

After the tragedy, many aviation companies, including Kogalymavia, stopped flying over Sinai until the exact causes of the crash were clarified.

From 4 to 6 November 2015 Governments of Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, Germany and others European countries suspended regular flights over Sinai Peninsula.

November 16, 2015 V.V. Putin announced that Russia will continue to look for the causes of the disaster; it is necessary to join forces and punish those responsible for the tragedy.

Fact. After the disaster in Egypt, an order was issued to intensify air strikes against the terrorist organization ISIS.

Conclusion

The plane crash over the Sinai Peninsula became the largest in Russian history. passenger aviation. On October 23, 2017, a monument to those who died over the Sinai was erected in St. Petersburg. On October 31, 2017, a memorial to the victims was laid in Vsevolozhsk.

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 aircraft 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 performing chartered 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 probable cause 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 the international technical commission had established exact location explosion on an airplane. 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 Beit 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 Investigative Committee Alexandra Bastrykina. 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 materials of the investigation. Another complaint concerned Ingosstrakh. The appeal alleged that the company fraudulently obtains statements from relatives of the deceased that limit 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.”