Mysterious breakdown: why the Kogalymavia plane crashed. Pain, fear and tears. How the relatives of those killed over the Sinai Airbus 321 Kogalymavia crash live a year later
Flight 9268 departed on its last flight at 03:50:06 UTC (05:50:06 local time and 06:50:06 Moscow time). At 04:13:00 the airliner sharply dropped in altitude and then disappeared from radar.
Shortly before the accident, the aircraft commander requested permission from ground services for an emergency landing in Cairo due to technical problems. However, it was no longer possible to save the aircraft. The wreckage of the airliner was discovered near the city of El-Arish - they were scattered over 13 km in an ellipse-shaped area, the area of which reached 30 square meters. km.
There were 224 people on board the crashed Airbus 321, seven of them crew members. Egyptian rescuers at the scene initially reported hearing people groaning under the rubble and said they hoped to find someone who had survived, but it soon became known that no one had survived. Most of the plane's passengers were tourists returning to Russia after a holiday in Egypt. The vast majority of those on board the plane were Russians, but there were three citizens of Ukraine and one Belarusian citizen.
Among the dead were the deputy head of Pskov, who was returning from vacation with his common-law wife, as well as a participant in the TV show “Top Model in Russian” Elena Domashnyaya from St. Petersburg. 24 children died.
The youngest passenger was only ten months old; her photograph, published by many world publications, became a symbol of the tragedy over the Sinai.
Causes
In the first days after the disaster, conflicting information was received about the possible causes of the crash. Thus, Egyptian authorities said that the crew of the Airbus 321 complained of engine problems. They also put forward a version of a technical malfunction as one of the main ones. Egypt's preliminary report late last year made no mention of a terrorist attack on board the ship.
However, all the evidence pointed to the opposite.
A few hours after the accident, militants from the Islamic State banned in Russia took responsibility for the explosion.
The organizer of the explosion was called Abu Osama al-Masri, the leader of the Vilayat Sinai group, considered to be. Later, through media friendly to them, the terrorists showed photographs of an explosive device - it turned out to be a homemade bomb made from an ordinary aluminum can. ISIS militants also claimed that they were able to smuggle the device on board the plane after they found a loophole in the security system at Sharm el-Sheikh airport.
On the evening of November 16, Vladimir Putin, at a meeting following the investigation into the causes of the plane crash, said that Russia would find and punish the organizers of the terrorist attack.
“The murder of our people in Sinai is among the bloodiest in terms of the number of crime victims. And we will not wipe away the tears from our souls and hearts. This will stay with us forever. But this will not stop us from finding and punishing the criminals,” the president emphasized. - We must do this without a statute of limitations, know them all by name. We will look for them wherever they are hiding. We will find them anywhere on the planet and punish them.”
In addition, Putin ordered increased air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria. After this order, the aviation group of the Russian Air Force in Syria was strengthened, and long-range aircraft were also involved in the bombing. “Our combat aviation work in Syria must not only be continued. It must be strengthened in such a way that criminals understand that retribution is inevitable,” the president added.
"Garden of Memory"
The day before, October 30, a foundation stone was installed on Rumbolovskaya Mountain in the Leningrad Region at the site of the future monument to the victims of the “Garden of Memory” tragedy. “We plan to plant 224 trees here, according to the number of people killed in the terrorist attack over Sinai. And this garden, the “Garden of Memory,” will bloom every year, will live. And the memory of relatives, friends and fellow countrymen who flew on flight 9268 will live in our hearts,” said the regional governor.
The “Garden of Memory” project, developed by students of the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, is a corridor of slabs and metal structures with the names of all those killed in the plane crash with elements of landscape design. Thanks to the lighting system, the monument will be visible at night to those driving along the Road of Life (today this is the official name of the A128 highway St. Petersburg - Morier). The grand opening of the “Garden of Memory” will take place a year later, on the eve of the second anniversary of the Egyptian tragedy.
The day before, relatives of the victims literally covered the monument laid in St. Petersburg with flowers.
They don’t have long to wait for the first results of the investigation into the tragedy over Sinai: the preliminary results of the investigation, according to a source of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan in the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, will be published within the next 60 days.
On October 31, 2015, a Russian Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia Airlines (Metrojet), operating flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
There were 224 people on board the plane, including 217 passengers (58 men, 134 women and 25 children - of which 212 were citizens of the Russian Federation, four citizens of Ukraine, one citizen of Belarus) and seven crew members.
Most of the people on the plane were residents of St. Petersburg. Residents of neighboring regions also returned to Russia - the Leningrad region, Novgorod, Pskov, Karelia, and several people from other subjects of the Federation. Everyone on board died. The disaster was the largest in the history of Russian and Soviet aviation.
The Airbus-A321 aircraft of the Kogalymavia airline (Metrojet), in which the tour operator Brisco, took off from Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) to St. Petersburg on October 31 at 06.51 Moscow time and disappeared from the radar screens after 23 minutes. According to the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority, the airliner was flying at an altitude of 9.4 kilometers, then sharply decreased by 1.5 kilometers, after which it disappeared from radar.
There was no word on the fate of the plane for quite some time. The airliner disappeared from radar screens in the Cyprus region, so for half an hour they could not determine the exact location of the possible crash.
Egyptian military aviation was present to search for the Russian plane. The Israel Defense Forces sent its reconnaissance aircraft to the Egyptian services to participate in the search operation.
The wreckage of A321 was discovered in the center of the Sinai Peninsula in the mountains between the areas of Al-Kantala and Al-Laksim near the city of Al-Hasna. To identify the aircraft, Egyptian emergency services were sent to the discovery site, where a large-scale search and rescue operation was carried out.
In agreement with Cairo, a group of forces and assets of the Russian Unified State System for the Prevention and Elimination of Emergency Situations (RSChS) in the amount of more than one thousand people and 250 units of equipment was involved in eliminating the consequences of the airliner crash, of which more than 660 people and 100 units were from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations technicians, as well as psychologists from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Search operations were organized on site using unmanned aerial vehicles and space monitoring data, and more than 40 square kilometers of territory were examined.
On the day of the plane crash, two A321 flight emergency recorders were found in Cairo - voice and parametric.
In connection with the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared mourning in the country on November 1, 2015. The authorities of St. Petersburg until November 3, and the Leningrad region until November 4.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation on the fact of the plane crash of a Russian plane in Egypt was first under the article “Violation of flight rules and preparation for them,” then another under the article “Performance of work or provision of services that do not meet safety requirements.” Later they were in the same production.
On instructions from the President, the Russian government in connection with the disaster, headed by Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) was under the leadership of the executive director of the committee, Viktor Sorochenko.
Cairo immediately after the disaster, all interested countries offered the opportunity to take part in the investigation of the tragedy. A special team was created, which included specialists from five countries: Russia, Egypt, France (the state that developed the aircraft), Germany (the state that manufactured the airliner) and Ireland (the state of registration). Ayman al-Muqaddam was appointed head of the commission to investigate the disaster.
On November 1, 2015, Egyptian Prosecutor General Nabil Ahmed Sadek investigated the causes of the crash of a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula. According to the Russian Ambassador in Cairo, Sergei Kirpichenko, Russia and Egypt have an agreement, according to which Russian specialists have access to almost everywhere they want to go as part of the investigation into the A321 crash.
A group of investigators and criminologists from the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia, in agreement with the competent authorities and together with representatives of the Republic of Egypt, in accordance with the norms of national and international law, participated in the inspection of the scene of the plane crash in Egypt.
The head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bortnikov, during a meeting in the Kremlin on the results of the investigation into the causes of the crash of the Russian plane, said that as a result of an examination of personal belongings, luggage and parts of the plane that crashed in Egypt, traces of foreign-made explosives were identified. It happened like a terrorist attack.
In turn, the Egyptian authorities. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that this criminal case is considering the terrorist attack as one of the versions.
In March 2016, the International Commission of Inquiry into the crash of the Russian A321 aircraft announced that it was from the Investigative Committee of Russia and transferred it to the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office to complete legal procedures. The commission itself, despite the transfer of the case to the investigative authorities of the country's state security, will continue the technical examination of the wreckage of the airliner.
In mid-April, Egypt's Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek reported the crash of a Russian plane to the country's Supreme State Security Prosecutor's Office. The decision of the head of the supervisory agency, as noted in the text of the statement, was made on the basis of data from the report of the Investigative Committee of Russia, “which indicates a suspicion of the presence of a criminal trail.”
In June, CIA Director John Brennan, speaking in the US Senate, said that American intelligence implicated the Egyptian group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist movement banned in many countries, in the explosion on the Russian A321 passenger plane. (IS), and on August 4, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense announced the elimination of the leader of this terrorist group.
On August 28, the commission investigating the disaster began “laying out” fragments of the aircraft’s structure in an aircraft hangar in the city of Cairo, where they were delivered from the crash site. after its completion, the point from which the destruction of the airliner’s hull began was determined.
According to media reports, when analyzing the layout of the collected fragments of the A321 in the hangar of Cairo airport, experts said that terrorists placed an explosive device in the tail of the ship, the explosion caused the separation of the tail section and an uncontrolled dive. According to them, Russia has almost completed a report on the causes of the disaster, clearly indicating a terrorist trail: a powerful explosive device with a clock mechanism was used, which provoked a strong blast wave and fire.
The investigation into the crash of the Russian A321 over the Sinai Peninsula. On October 24, it became known that an investigation commission formed by the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office sent twelve fragments of the airliner to a scientific alloy laboratory for a detailed study.
After the disaster, there were flights to Egypt from the Russian Federation and there was a flow of tourists. Russia stated the need to ensure security at Egyptian airports in order to resume air traffic between the countries. A number of European airlines have also suspended flights to this country. The Egyptian authorities are making great efforts to improve security measures in resort areas and airports, wanting to restore tourist flow. In the months since the tragedy, many foreign expert delegations have visited Egyptian airport security inspections in Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
From the airport of the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. People who had vacationed in Egypt returned home to Russia on this plane. The landing was to take place in St. Petersburg. However, this was not destined to happen. The plane crashed. All crew members and passengers of the ill-fated flight are victims of a plane crash over Sinai.
Events preceding the tragedy
The airliner made two passenger flights shortly before the tragedy. The first and second flights were carried out along the route Egypt (Sharm el-Sheikh) - Russia (Samara) - Egypt (Sharm el-Sheikh). The plane landed abroad on the afternoon of October 30. The crew members had no comments about the airliner.
The following morning, maintenance was carried out before scheduled flights. During the test, no problems were identified. Another flight boarding has begun. 192 adult passengers and 25 children boarded. The crew consisted of 7 people.
Plane crash
At 06:50 Moscow time, the airliner took off from the airport of the Egyptian resort city to St. Petersburg. 23 minutes after takeoff, contact with the crew was lost. from radars. Search teams moved to the suspected crash site.
The crashed airliner was found in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula, among the mountains. On a huge territory of more than 20 square meters. km, the wreckage of the plane and the belongings of passengers on board were scattered. People who arrived at the scene of the tragedy heard the sounds of mobile phones. Relatives and friends of the victims called their loved ones, hoping that they had missed their flight.
Versions of the causes of the plane crash
International media reports indicated that the plane may have crashed due to a technical problem. However, Metrojet airline, which leased this airliner, denied this version. Press secretary Alexey Smirnov noted that the plane crash over Sinai could not have occurred due to a malfunction, because the plane was checked several days before the tragedy. No problems were found.
An error by the crew members is another version that was put forward during the investigation. Metrojet said the plane was being flown by experienced people. The commander of the aircraft was Nemov Valery Yurievich. He flew over 12 thousand hours. The second pilot was Sergey Stanislavovich Trukhachev. His total flight time was 5,641 hours.
An explosion on board a homemade bomb is a version confirmed during the investigation. a statement was made that a Russian airliner crashed over the Sinai Peninsula as a result of a terrorist attack. ISIS militants announced their involvement in the crime.
Victims of the tragedy
The plane crash over Sinai killed 224 people. There were several families on board the crashed plane. In St. Petersburg, a whole memorial appeared near Pulkovo Airport on the day of the tragedy. People brought flowers, toys, and lit candles in memory of those who were unable to return from the Egyptian resort town to Russia.
The bodies of the victims were brought home. arrived with the victims in St. Petersburg on November 2 at approximately 6 am. There were 144 people on board this airliner, whose lives were claimed by the plane crash over Sinai. The bodies of the dead, found later, personal belongings of people, fragments of bodies were brought to Russia on the following flights.
Identification procedure
After the planes with the bodies of the dead arrived from Egypt, experts began preparing for the identification procedure. The bodies were gradually released to relatives and close people. The first funeral took place on November 5. In St. Petersburg on this day they said goodbye to a 31-year-old resident who left behind a 2-year-old son and wife. In the Novgorod region, a 60-year-old woman who worked at a local school was buried.
The release of the remains was completed on December 7, 2015 in St. Petersburg. During the activities carried out, it was not possible to identify 7 victims. These victims of the plane crash over Sinai, with the consent of their loved ones and relatives, were buried unidentified.
Main passenger
Tatyana and Alexey Gromov are a young family who died in a plane crash over the Sinai Peninsula. They set off for the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 15, unaware that this trip would be their last. Together with them they took their 10-month-old daughter Darina. The girl’s grandmother was very worried when she learned that Tatyana and Alexey would not go alone. An elderly woman asked them to leave their granddaughter in Russia. However, the parents did not agree. They really wanted their daughter to see the sea.
Before flying to Sharm el-Sheikh, Tatyana Gromova posted the last photo of her baby on the social network. The girl stood at the window, holding the glass with her hands, and looked at the runway, looking at the planes. “The main passenger” - these were the words my mother wrote. After 2 weeks, this photo became a symbol of a terrible tragedy.
Other children killed in the plane crash
Anton Bogdanov is a 10-year-old boy whose life was taken in a plane crash over Sinai. He was vacationing in Egypt with his older sister and father. The family was very happy about the upcoming trip. Before flying to Sharm el-Sheikh, the boy left the inscription “Goodbye, Russia!!!” on his social network profile. Unfortunately, these words turned out to be prophetic.
The number of dead children also includes 3-year-old Anastasia Sheina, 10-year-old Valeria Dushechkina, and 11-year-old Evgeniy Pryanikov. Their parents were Olga and Yuri Shein. The adults decided to go to Egypt to celebrate an important date for them - 10 years since they met. They took all the children with them.
The list of those killed in the plane crash over Sinai includes the names of two more children - 2-year-old Dmitry and 3-year-old Alexandra Vinnik. They vacationed in Egypt with their mother Marianna Vinnik and grandmother Natalya Osipova. On the day of the plane crash they were all gone. Oleg Vinnik, Marianna’s husband and father of small children, lost his large family. The man was not on this airliner. He did not go on vacation, but stayed in Russia.
There were other children on board the plane. Each child had his own story, his own life, his own dreams and desires. The ending for all these innocent children turned out to be the same. Their fates in 2015 on October 31 were tragically cut short by a plane crash over Sinai. The bodies of the dead children were found among the wreckage of the plane in the crash area.
Premonition of death
For some people on that ill-fated flight, their intuition told them not to go on the trip. However, they did not listen to their inner voice. One of these passengers was 15-year-old Maria Ivleva. The girl was afraid to fly, she was tormented by the fear of death. She told her friends about this. After the plane crash and the investigation, horrifying information emerged - Maria Ivleva was sitting in the place where the bomb was located by the terrorists.
“I know I won’t come back.” A song with this name was left on her social network page by one of the passengers of the fatal flight, Ekaterina Murashova. She lived in Pskov, participated in the city beauty contest in 2014, and raised her daughter. Catherine loved to travel. The girl went to Sharm el-Sheikh with her mother, but she did not take her little daughter with her. The trip to Egypt was the last for Ekaterina Murashova.
The plane crash over the Sinai Peninsula is a tragic event that has been talked about all over the world. In one day, the lives of 224 people were cut short. Some people lost their soul mate in a plane crash over Sinai, some lost their parents, some were left without children, and some lost all their loved ones and were left completely alone. This is an irreparable loss, the pain of which has not gone away over time and is unlikely to ever subside.
Exactly a year ago, on October 31, 2015, the A321 plane of the Russian airline Kogalymavia, flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, disappeared from radar 23 minutes after takeoff. There were 224 people on board: 217 passengers, mostly tourists from Russia, and seven crew members; none of them survived. About the consequences of the largest disaster in the history of Russian aviation and the progress of its investigation - in the RBC photo gallery.
October 31, 2015. The wreckage of the airliner was found near the airport in the city of El Arish on the Sinai Peninsula. Among the first versions of the disaster were a technical malfunction, external influence and an explosion on board.
The International Aviation Committee (IAC) said the spread of debris from the A321 indicated the plane broke up in mid-air. Following this, the Kogalymavia management said that this could only happen as a result of external influence.
November 1, 2015. The bodies of those killed in the A321 crash began to be delivered to St. Petersburg, and within five days the identification of the victims by external signs was completed. A month later, all identified remains were given to the relatives of the victims; it was decided to bury all unidentified remains in a mass grave in one of the St. Petersburg cemeteries.
In the photo: the bodies of those killed in the plane crash over Sinai were delivered to St. Petersburg
25 children aged from two to 17 years died in the disaster. On November 1, national mourning was declared in Russia. In St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, where most of the victims were from, mourning was extended for several days.
In the photo: a spontaneous memorial in the arrivals area of Pulkovo airport
November 3, 2015. The head of the Ministry of Labor, Maxim Topilin, reported to Vladimir Putin that the families of those killed in the plane crash will receive 2 million rubles from the state. In addition, the administration of St. Petersburg decided to pay them 500 thousand rubles each.
In the photo: a relative of one of those killed during a funeral at the Bogoslovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg
November 8, 2015. The commission to investigate the causes of the A321 plane crash has released the results of a preliminary analysis of the recordings of both “black boxes”. The recording of the parametric recorder did not contain information about the failure of the aircraft's systems and components, and it was interrupted as the airliner climbed to an altitude of 9,400 m. A day later, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the possibility of a terrorist attack could not be ruled out, including because of this, a decision was made to evacuating tourists and banning flights.
November 8, 2015. The Associated Press, citing employees of the Sharm el-Sheikh airport, reported serious systematic violations of airport security rules, non-functioning scanners and bribes of airport employees in the baggage inspection area. In particular, the agency wrote, there was practically no inspection of vehicles delivering food and fuel to the planes.
In the photo: Sharm el-Sheikh airport security near the passenger check-in counters
Photo: Alexey Nikolsky/press service of the President of the Russian Federation/TASS
November 17, 2015. The head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, at a meeting with Vladimir Putin, said that an explosive device with a capacity of up to 1 kg of TNT was detonated on board the A321, and traces of foreign-made explosives were found on the wreckage of the aircraft. The President ordered the Russian special services to find and destroy those responsible for the crash of the airliner.
In the photo: Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, President Vladimir Putin, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov (from left to right) during a minute of silence at the beginning of a meeting on the results of the investigation into the causes of the crash A321
November 18, 2015. The Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia distributed a photograph of an alleged explosive device planted on board the A321. In the photo, a can of Schweppes Gold soft drink lies against a blue background, and next to it is a suspected detonator. The Islamic State statement said that it was possible to install a bomb on board a Russian plane using a loophole in the security service at Sharm el-Sheikh airport.
November 20, 2015. The Federal Tourism Agency announced the completion of the evacuation program for Russian tourists from Egypt. It was reported that at the time of the tragedy their number was about 45 thousand people. At the end of the first quarter of 2016, revenues of the Egyptian tourism industry fell by 66%.
In the photo: the territory of one of the hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh in early November 2015
January 9, 2016. It became known that an EgyptAir technician, whose cousin joined the Islamic State terrorist group banned in Russia, is suspected of involvement in the A321 crash. The technician was detained along with two police officers working at Sharm el-Sheikh airport and a baggage handler who may have helped him get the bomb on board.
September 13, 2016. Experts in Egypt have identified the location of the bomb that led to the crash of the A321 plane in the skies over Sinai: it was planted in the oversized baggage compartment at the rear of the plane. It also turned out that the terrorists hired an airport service employee to plant the bomb: the package with explosives was brought into the compartment first, after which it was stuffed with baby strollers and furniture, securely hidden from prying eyes.
October 16, 2016. The Egyptian authorities said that the joint work of the Egyptian and Russian sides on the issue of resuming flights continues and they have hope for a quick resolution of the issue. The Egyptian side promised to eliminate all shortcomings identified by Russian experts in the security systems of local airports by winter, but Russian tour operators assume that flights will be resumed no earlier than spring 2017.