(Updated)
Russia’s top aviation official says the Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt had broken up at high altitude.
Alexander Neradko, head of the federal aviation agency, said the large area over which fragments of the plane were scattered indicated that it disintegrated while flying high.
Germany’s transport ministry has warned the country’s airlines to avoid flying over both the northern and southeastern parts of the Sinai Peninsula following the crash.
A spokesman said Sunday that the ministry has issued “until further notice a broad warning … for using flight routes in the southeastern Sinai.”
The spokesman, who didn’t give his name in line with department policy, said his agency already had an existing flight warning for northern Sinai, where Egypt is fighting an Islamic insurgency.
German carrier Lufthansa, Air France and the Dubai-based Emirates have all announced they will no longer fly over the Sinai until the cause for the plane crash had been identified.
The co-pilot of the Russian airliner complained about its “technical condition” before take-off, his wife has said.
Natalya Trukhacheva, wife of co-pilot Sergei Trukachev, told Russian state-controlled NTV: “He complained before the flight that the technical condition of the aircraft left much to be desired.”
Egypt’s Ministry of Civil Aviation say the ‘black boxes’ has been found at the site where a Russian aircraft carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members crashed Saturday in a mountainous area of the Sinai peninsula.
An Egyptian officer at the scene says the bodies of at least 100 people have been recovered and that there are no survivors.
The officer goes on to say the plane was split in two and that other bodies were still strapped to their seats.
Search and rescue teams found the wreckage of the Russian Airbus A321-200 passenger jet in the Hassana area south of the restive city of el-Arish, where Egyptian security forces are fighting a burgeoning Islamic militant insurgency.
It said the plane the plane took off from Sinai’s Sharm el-Sheikh just before 6:00am local time — Sharm el-Sheikh is a popular destination for Russian tourists — and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after takeoff.
An Egyptian aviation official says the pilot of Metrojet Flight 7K-9268 had reported technical difficulties early Saturday and planned an emergency landing at the nearest airport before losing contact.
Russian media says the 214 Russian and three Ukrainian passengers on board were clients of tour operators ‘Briscoe’ and ‘Odeon’, headed for St. Petersburg, Russia.
Egyptian security sources say there is no indication that the plane was shot down but that it is too soon to determine a cause of the crash.
Egypt’s tourism ministry says that the Egyptian prime minister and other ministers flew to the crash site on a private jet.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a state investigation into the crash of the plane that belongs to Russian airline Kogalymavia and has declared Sunday a day of mourning.
Russian investigators are searching the Moscow offices of Metrojet, and investigators are taking fuel samples from the airport in Samara where the plane was last fuelled.
The Israeli military have offered to help Egypt with rescue efforts.
A senior military source in South Sinai says all bodies from the crash will be sent to Cairo while Russia has set up an operational headquarters at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg.
