Islamic State claims shooting down Russian passenger plane
October 31, 2015
According to Al-Jazeera, the Islamic State has claimed they shot down the passenger plane as a response to the ongoing Russian air raids in Syria
"Unfortunately, all passengers of Kogalymavia flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - Saint Petersburg have died. We issue condolences to family and friends," said a message on the embassy´s Facebook page, referring to the flight carrying 217 passengers and seven crew.
The Russian plane with 224 people on board crashed in a mountainous part of Egypt´s Sinai Peninsula, leaving "many" dead including 17 children, officials said.
The chartered passenger plane had taken off from the south Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh bound for Saint Petersburg and lost contact with air traffic control 23 minutes later.
Ambulances reached the site of the crash, in a remote mountainous area in the middle of the peninsula, and began evacuating "casualties," officials and state media reported.
The head of the Egyptian civil aviation authority Mahmud al-Zinati told AFP there were "many dead", including 17 children.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Moscow´s emergency ministry to dispatch rescue teams to Egypt.
The wreckage was found roughly 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the North Sinai town of El-Arish, Egyptian officials said.
"Military planes have discovered the wreckage of the plane... in a mountainous area, and 45 ambulances have been directed to the site to evacuate dead and wounded," a cabinet statement said.
Officials and the state MENA news agency later said the "casualties" were being transferred to a Cairo morgue and hospitals.
There was no official word on the cause of the crash.
A senior Egyptian aviation official said the plane was a charter flight operated by a Russian company carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members, which was flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet when communication was lost.
At Saint Petersburg´s Pulkovo airport, anxious family members awaited news of their loved ones.
"I am meeting my parents," said 25-year-old Ella Smirnova, a tall woman seemingly in shock. "I spoke to them last on the phone when they were already on the plane, and then I heard the news."
"I will keep hoping until the end that they are alive, but perhaps I will never see them again."
A senior official in Egypt air traffic control said that the pilot told him in their last communication that he was having trouble with the plane´s radio system.
Russian aviation official Sergei Izvolsky told Interfax news agency that the plane operated by Russian carrier Kogalymavia had departed Sharm el-Sheikh at 5:51 am local time (0351 GMT).
He said the Airbus 321 did not make contact as expected with air traffic controllers in Cyprus.
