Russian Investigators: 'External Impact' Caused Crash
Officials are looking into what caused a Russian airliner to lose speed before crashing into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula Saturday, killing 224 people.
Russian investigators say the plane broke apart at high altitude and are speculating that an external influence caused the crash.
"We rule out a technical fault of the plane or a pilot error," said Alexander Smirnov, deputy general director of Metrojet. "The only possible explanation could be an external impact on the airplane."
Viktor Yung, another deputy director general of Metrojet, noted that crew did not send a distress call or contact traffic controllers before the plane went down.
On Saturday, an ISIS affiliate in Egypt claimed responsibility for the tragedy. But both Russian and Egyptian officials dismissed the claim, saying northern Sinai jihadists lacked the weaponry to down a plane at 31,000 feet.
"The Islamic State and [regional] militant groups are not known to have anything that could hit planes at cruising altitude," the Guardian quoted Zack Gold, a regional expert focused on Sinai security. "The only way they could have been responsible is if they managed to get a bomb on the plane itself."
"The group does not have a history of major fabrications, but at the same time it's curious that they would make this claim without providing any kind of evidence," he continued.
"They have military capabilities, but to carry out this kind of terrorism [on a plane] they would have to display organization they haven't shown [before]," Gold said.
Meanwhile, Russian officials have sent more than 100 rescue experts to assist in the search for the bodies and plane debris. On Monday, the recovered remains were flown back to Russia.
