Bomb smuggled into cargo hold may have brought down Russian plane: report
Posted November 6, 2015 6:22 am.
Last Updated November 6, 2015 6:56 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
British intelligence officials have reportedly uncovered evidence that suggests the Russian jet that crashed in Egypt on Saturday was brought down by a bomb smuggled into the cargo hold.
SkyNews reports intelligence acquired by the UK government’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre points to someone with access to the aircraft’s baggage compartment. That person may have inserted an explosive device inside or on top of the luggage just before the Metrojet plane took off in the Egypt resort area of Sharm el-Sheikh.
On Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron said “intelligence and information” indicated a bomb was the probable reason the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 crashed in the desert, killing all 224 people on board.
“We don’t know for certain that it was a terrorist bomb – (but it’s a) strong possibility,” Cameron said on Thursday.
Russian and Egyptian officials are dismissing suggestions a bomb caused the crash, insisting the investigation into the crash must run its course before any conclusion is reached.
Aviation expert Chris Barratt, the managing director of Avsec Global Ltd. in the UK, told the BBC that not everything going onto a plane can be screened.
“There is no such thing as 100 per cent security, and so we have to minimize the risk as much as we can. And clearly in this case, if the government are current in their analysis, then that has failed.”
In fact, British tourist Dale Parkynm who was vacationing in the area a few months ago, told SkyNews he paid an airport worker $40 to skip the security line.
“He put the case on the conveyor belt and the girl checked us in, and at no point did my luggage go through any scanner,” he said.
The Metrojet plane crashed 23 minutes after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for St. Petersburg with mostly Russians aboard.
On Friday, British airline easyJet says its plans to fly hundreds of stranded Britons back from the resort have been disrupted by Egyptian authorities.
The budget carrier had been due to operate 10 flights from the resort on Friday, but said eight would not be able to operate because Egypt had suspended British flights from flying into the airport.
Monarch and British Airways said they still planned to operate flights back from Sinai on Friday.
The U.K. grounded all flights to and from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, saying there was a “significant possibility” the Russian airliner was downed by a bomb.
