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

A motley crowd of tourists, bright undersea world, attracting divers from all over the world - all this attracts travelers. Russians were eager to go there as if they were going to a second dacha: at least a week to rest from work and bask in the sun. Whole families flew until the plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 forced the entire country to shudder.

Tragic accident

The Brisco tourist group was returning by charter flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. Despite the early morning (departure at 5.50 local time), the passengers were in excellent spirits. They posted pictures of their successful vacation on social networks. It was Saturday, and on Monday many had to plunge into work; some had work, others had to study.

The Airbus A321-231 EI-ETJ airliner, which arrived from Samara, took 217 passengers on board. They and seven crew members were to be in Northern capital, where many relatives and friends were waiting at the airport. Having reached a given altitude of 9400 meters in 23 minutes, at a speed of 520 km/h the aircraft suddenly disappeared from the radar. At 6.15 (7.15 Moscow) the plane crashed in the area Sinai Peninsula near El-Arish airport - the hottest spot in Egypt, where Al-Qaeda Islamists confronted government troops.

Versions of the tragedy

Those meeting flight 9268 at Pulkovo Airport anxiously watched the board, which displayed the information: “Arrival delayed.” And by evening, the whole country knew that the wreckage of the aircraft that had disappeared from radar had been discovered by the Egyptian authorities. Scattered over a length of 13 kilometers, with the tail section torn off, they were shown on television, which gave rise to many versions of experts about possible reasons disasters. Three were considered the most reliable:

Technical problems associated either with engine failure or metal fatigue. In the tail section, traces of skin repair were found after the aircraft touched the asphalt with its tail while landing at Cairo airport in 2001. The resulting microcrack could cause the destruction of the aircraft as it climbed.
The plane crash in Egypt was caused by the crew's mistakes.
Terrorist act.

The IAC commission, headed by Egyptian representative Ayman al-Mukkadam, began working at the site of the tragedy. It included representatives of Russia, France, Germany, the USA and Ireland. After studying the evidence and decoding, the first two versions were found unfounded.

Aircraft

The A321 crash over the Sinai Peninsula was the largest in the history of Egypt and modern Russia. The airbus belonged to the Kogalymavia company, which underwent a thorough inspection. It was found that after the 2001 emergency, the aircraft was repaired in France at the manufacturer's plant, after which all the necessary tests were carried out. Over 18 years of operation, the airliner flew less than 50% of its service life (57,428 hours) and was in good condition. This is evidenced by weekly technical checks, the last of which was carried out on October 26, 2015. The flight recorders did not detect any system malfunction. Until the 23rd minute, the flight proceeded quite normally.

Crew

Forty-eight-year-old crew commander Valery Nemov is a graduate of SVAAULSH (Stavropol Military School). He is one of the few who, in the difficult 90s, retrained to fly on Airbuses since 2008, having 12 thousand flight hours, which testifies to his enormous experience. The co-pilot also came from military aviation, being a veteran of the Chechen campaign. After retiring, Sergei Trukhachev retrained on the A321, having undergone training in the Czech Republic. I flew them for more than 2 years. The total flight time was 6 thousand hours. Both pilots were in good standing with their airline. Nemov was even called back from vacation prematurely to be sent to the sad famous flight 9268.

Official version

Two weeks after the tragedy, the version of the terrorist attack was officially voiced by the head of the FSB during a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation. To support his words, he provided the following evidence:

American satellites recorded a thermal flash over Sinai during the disaster, which indicates an explosion occurred on board the plane.
The fuselage fragment has a hole with a diameter of about one meter. Its edges are curved outward. This indicates that the source of the explosion was inside.
When decoding the recorder recording the negotiations, before the recording is interrupted, extraneous noise is heard, the nature of which can be attributed to a blast wave.
The plane crash in Egypt caused great public outcry. After a while, they not only admitted responsibility for the terrorist attack, but also posted a photo of an improvised explosive device (IED) on the pages of Dabig magazine.
Some of the victims had injuries indicating death from the consequences of the explosion (burns, tissue ruptures).
Traces of explosives - TNT molecules - were found in fragments of shrapnel, luggage and on the bodies of the victims.

The power of the explosion was estimated at 1 kilogram. The estimated location of the IED is the tail of the aircraft. For the blast wave moved forward, but the fracture of the fuselage prevented its further advancement.

Plane crash in Egypt: who is to blame?

After the Russian version appeared, it became known that 17 employees were detained at the Egyptian airport. The main question was one: “How did the IED get on board the airliner?” The FSB began studying the biographies of 34 passengers (11 men and 23 women) who had TNT molecules on their bodies. But official Egypt soon stated that there was no evidence for a clear statement about a terrorist attack on board the plane. None of the employees were actually arrested. Russian authorities have announced a $50 million reward for any information about the terrorists.

Only in February 2016 did the Egyptian President officially acknowledge the terrorist attack. It was discovered that the bomb was made from plasticite, which is used to create military projectiles. It is powered by a clock mechanism. The plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 showed that the airport security system does not meet international standards. The IED could have gotten on board with the company supplying the products through employees with access to the runway, as well as through hand luggage during baggage check. The latest data is such that it was in the cabin in the immediate vicinity of place 31A. All these facts led to a ban on the sale of holiday tours in Egypt.

Flight passengers

EI-ETJ - the last digits of the Airbus number. According to them, the aviators called the board “Juliet” among themselves, affectionately “Dzhulka”. On that tragic morning, she broke up three aviation marriages and killed a young steward who replaced a colleague who had quit due to a bad dream. It also took the lives of 217 passengers, 25 of whom were children. Those killed in a plane crash in Egypt are entire families, dozens of destroyed love stories, babies who will never grow up. Ten-month-old Darina Gromova was on this flight with her parents. Her mother posted her photo on a social network before the flight. A girl stands at the airport facing the runway, and below is the signature: “ Main passenger" This picture has become a symbol tragic flight, from which no one managed to return.

Almost all passengers are Russians, 4 people are citizens of Ukraine, 1 is from Belarus. The majority are residents of St. Petersburg, although there are also representatives of other regions: Pskov, Novgorod, Ulyanovsk. Those killed in the plane crash in Egypt are people of various professions. Even while relatives were busy identifying the bodies, caring people were forming a collective portrait of the passengers, collecting information about them bit by bit. A wonderful gallery was created, where there were many good words about everyone.

Almost a year later

On July 31, Moscow and St. Petersburg held a rally in memory of those killed over the Sinai. Nine months passed: many relatives received compensation, identified and buried their loved ones, but the pain did not subside. On August 5, 2016, a message was received that forty-five militants led by Abu Dua al-Ansari, through whose fault the plane crash occurred in Egypt, were killed during a military operation near El-Arish. I really want to believe that something like this will never happen again!

The Airbus A321 plane collapsed while still in the air, and the pilots did not transmit an SOS signal to the ground, according to statements by IACf and the Egyptian authorities. The main version remains a breakdown. Officials from both countries denied the possibility of a terrorist attack.

The crash site of the Russian Airbus A321 (Photo: Maxim Grigoriev/TASS)

Flight recorders were found at the crash site of the Russian Airbus A321 airliner. All of them received only minor damage, said the head of the Russian Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov. The place where the data from the flight recorders of the crashed A321 airliner will be opened and studied will be determined later, but Egypt has a priority right in determining the country of the autopsy, said the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko. The opening and examination of the boxes will be carried out jointly by Russian and Egyptian specialists.

Airplane Russian airline Kogalymavia (operating under the Metrojet brand) crashed in the center of the Sinai Peninsula, 100 km from the Egyptian city of El-Arish, on the morning of October 31. The plane crash was the worst in history Russian aviation. There were 224 people on board the plane, including 24 children and seven crew members. All of them were killed, Egyptian authorities announced Saturday evening. On Sunday evening, 130 of the bodies found and examined were sent to Russia.

Collapsed in mid-air

The plane, flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, took off at 06:51 Moscow time and disappeared from radar at 07:14, a representative of the Federal Air Transport Agency said on the morning of October 31. His arrival at Pulkovo airport was expected at 12:10 Moscow time. A little later, the Egyptian side confirmed the crash of the plane, saying that it crashed in a mountainous area and access to it was difficult.

As follows from the portal Flightradar24.com, at 07:11 Moscow time the plane reached an altitude of 10,210 m and a speed of 404 knots (748 km/h). At 07:13 Moscow time, the aircraft's speed suddenly dropped to 184 knots (341 km/h), then to 93 knots (172 km/h). The flight altitude dropped to 8649 m. This is where the flight track ends - in all likelihood, the A321 transponder stopped transmitting data on flight parameters. According to Flightradar24.com, before disappearing from radar, the plane was descending at a speed of about 1.8 km per minute, that is, falling almost vertically.

IAC executive director Viktor Sorochenko said on Sunday evening that the plane collapsed while still in the air. According to him, fragments of the plane are scattered over an area of about 20 square meters. km. It is too early to draw conclusions about the causes of the disaster, he emphasized. TASS sources reported that the plane probably caught fire in the air.

Mysterious technique

The version of the technical malfunction of the A321 is considered as the main reason for the crash of the airliner, an Interfax source familiar with the situation said. More specific statements about the possible causes of the malfunction have not yet emerged.

Engine failure or fire could not be a sufficient reason for the plane to lose altitude, Kogalymavia believes. An engine failure is a "serious situation" but "does not lead to a catastrophe," a carrier spokesman said. Such situations are practiced on simulators every six months, he explained. “There is a version that there was an engine failure, a fire in the engine, again I want to say that because of this the planes do not fall from the flight level,” said a representative of Kogalymavia on the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

A plane crash due to technical malfunctions during flight is very rare, the director of the Scientific Center for Economic Monitoring, Analysis and Forecasting of the State Research Institute tells RBC civil aviation Alexander Fridland. More often than not, the causes of disasters are the human factor. It is also rare that the disaster occurred at flight level: as a rule, a crash occurs during takeoff or landing. Technical problems could have occurred with the electrical system, which caused a fire, the expert suggests. The possibility of an explosion cannot be ruled out. luggage compartment, says the expert.

Other versions of the plane crash are also being considered: human factor and unfavorable weather conditions, coupled with difficult mountainous terrain, an Interfax source said.

Before flying to Egypt, the plane refueled in Samara, where investigators were instructed to seize and organize testing of fuel samples. Experts checked the quality of the fuel and found that it met all the requirements, Maya Ivanova, a representative of the Volga Transport Prosecutor’s Office, later said.

The commander of the crashed A321, Valery Nemov, had more than 12 thousand flight hours, said a representative of Kogalymavia, claiming that pilot error was completely excluded. Ivanova also stated that the crew had undergone a medical examination and were in good condition.

Now investigative committee Russia (TFR) and Rostransnadzor are conducting an inspection of Kogalymavia. The Investigative Committee questioned 146 airline employees who worked with the crew, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Sunday. Rostransnadzor began an unscheduled flight safety inspection of the company.

There was no SOS signal

Before taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, the Russian plane passed the necessary technical checks, and no malfunctions were identified. This was stated by the head of the Egyptian state-owned company that manages airports, Adel Mahgoub. The plane had all the permits and certification for the flight, said the head of the Russian Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov. Before departure, the engines are started and tested, explains RBC Fridlyand. “During the testing process, the automation signals various parameters. If something is wrong, the crew does not take off. They are not suicides,” says the expert.

Before the crash, the pilot requested a change in route and landing at Cairo airport due to a technical malfunction, a RIA Novosti source at Sharm el-Sheikh airport reported on Saturday. Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Hussam Kamal denied this information on Sunday. According to him, there was no SOS signal from the pilots until the crash.

The ex-wife of co-pilot Sergei Trukhachev, Natalya, told NTV about his complaints about the condition of the plane shortly before departure. According to her, her husband talked about the condition of the liner in a telephone conversation with his daughter. The idea that the crew repeatedly complained about the condition of the plane and still flew it is unlikely, Friedland says: “I don’t believe it.” When reporting problems, the aircraft must undergo all necessary checks and not return to work, he assures.

Old plane

The A321 is the largest aircraft in its family. It was put into operation in 1993. In total, more than 900 of these aircraft were produced.

The age of the crashed plane is 18 years and five months, according to data on Flightradar and Jetphotos.net. 18 years old is not the highest age for an airliner. The average age of a Russian aircraft is 21 years, Vladimir Gutenev, First Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on Industry, estimated on Saturday.

The aircraft has belonged to Kogalymavia Airlines since March 2012. Metrojet's fleet included seven Airbus A321 aircraft ranging in age from 14 to 17 years, two 11-year-old A320s and one Challenger-850 for business flights, according to industry portal Samolets.com. According to the portal Airfleets.net, the first flight of the Airbus A321 airliner was dated May 9, 1997.

Loud statements

The Egyptian branch of the Islamic State (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) has claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula, AFP reported on Saturday. A statement on behalf of the group appeared in the Telegram messenger and on social networks of terrorist supporters, the BBC clarifies. Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, commenting on this information, said that it cannot be considered reliable. Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman Mohammed Samir told The Guardian that "on this moment There is no evidence that terrorists are responsible for this plane crash."

Following the IS statement, the German airline Lufthansa and the French Air France, as well as United United Arab Emirates Emirates has decided to avoid flying over the Sinai Peninsula as a precaution, AFP reported.

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” took responsibility for terrorist attack on board a 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 at exactly 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.

"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 thousand 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 decrypt them.

There is still not a single reliable video or even photo from the crash site. Russian plane 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. There has never been such a number of casualties in the history of Russian civil aviation.

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 plane was maintained. This particular aircraft served for several years in airlines in the countries of the Middle East region: in 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.”