Russian Airliner Crashes in Sinai

Killing All 224 Passengers and Crew Aboard

A Russian Mertrojet Airbus A321-200 aircraft crashed today into a mountainous area of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 passengers and crew aboard. The Metrojet Flight 9268 was flying from the Sinai Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in Russia when it went down in central Sinai soon after daybreak. (Reuters, 31 October)

The plane landed in a “vertical fashion,” a security source told Reuters, contributing to the scale of devastation and burning.

"The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part that crashed into a rock," a Sweden-based aviation tracking service said. (Reuters, 31 October)

Initial reports by the Egyptian authorities suggested the crash was probably caused by a technical default.  But a militant group affiliated with the Islamic State Sinai Province said in a statement carried by Aamaq, the semi-official new agency for ISIL, that it had brought down the plane “in response to Russian airstrikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land,” Reuters reported.

Russia’s Minister of Transportation, however, told Interfax that the claim by the Islamic State “can’t be considered accurate.”

UPDATE: The New York Times reports that the flight's pilot radioed he had technical problems, but France24 reports that the veteran captain never issued a distress call. Both reports, however, suggest the plane experienced a catastrophic event just before nose-diving into the ground, either a massive technical breakdown or a powerful explosion inside the plane.

Top photo: The Metrojet Airbus A321-200, registration number EI-ETJ, that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, seen in this picture taken in Turkey in September 2015 (Photo: Reuters)

Bottom photos: First photos of the wreckage of Mertojet (Twitter/@AmichaiStein1)

Half of U.S. spooks believe rockets on Klos-C headed to Sinai not Gaza

 

Above: 120 mm mortar bombs and M-302 rockets taken from Klos-C
(IDF on Facebook)

According to Reuters:

Some U.S. intelligence analysts and Middle East security officials believe that a rocket shipment seized by the Israeli navy in the Red Sea this month was destined for the Egyptian Sinai and not for the Gaza Strip, as Israel says.

A U.S. official and two non-Israeli regional sources said Israel appeared to be insisting on the Gaza destination in order to spare the military-backed interim Egyptian administration embarrassment as it struggles to impose order in the Sinai.

[...]

"Were the Israelis to say the rockets were going to Sinai, then they would also have had to say who in Sinai was going to receive the rockets," one source told Reuters, adding that such a statement would draw attention to the insurgents resisting Egypt's security sweeps in northern Sinai.

There now appears to be no clear consensus as to where these arms were ultimately destined.

It's been pointed out the rockets are too large and not intended for breakdown, making them impractical for smuggling into Gaza. The next guess is they were headed for Sinai. The 7x62 small arms ammo is now thought by some to be headed to other parts of Africa. And while most intelligence sources believe the mortar bombs were headed for Gaza, the off-loading of the entire shipment was actually to take place in Sudan, with ultimate destination(s) open to what appears now to be conjecture.