Flight 9268 what really happened. Lost flight: what is known about the causes of the A321 crash a year later
The A321 plane crash over Sinai, which occurred on October 31, 2015, became the worst disaster in Egypt and the largest tragedy in aircraft crashes. The Airbus A321-231 aircraft, owned by the Kogalymavia company, was used by the tour operator Briscoe and carried tourists on flight 9268 Sharm al-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The crash killed 224 people.
Flight details
Airplane
Airbus A321-231 was produced in 1997. The vessel was then handed over to the owner, the leasing corporation ILFC, which leased it to MEA (Lebanon). The airliner was assigned the number F-0HMP, its capacity was 149 people. In Lebanon it was used for 6 years and was returned to ILFC in 2003.
Fact. During its use at MEA, one failure occurred - when landing in Egypt, the pilots raised the nose of the aircraft too high, and the tail touched the runway. After this, the aircraft was repaired.
In 2003, the aircraft was again leased to Onur Air Corporation (Türkiye). The ship's board was modernized, its capacity increased to 220 people. In 2007, the airliner was subleasing to Saudi Arabian Airlines ( Saudi Arabia), and in 2010 - Cham Wings (Syria). In 2012, the airliner was leased to Kogalymavia LLC.
According to the leasing company, the aircraft was maintained at a level that complied with the standards, and technical control and inspections were carried out on time. On October 26, 2015, a weekly technical inspection was carried out, and on March 18, 2014, the aircraft underwent factory control. Over all the years of use, the airliner has exhausted 46-48% of its nominal life of scheduled flights.
Crew and passengers
The ship was staffed by a Russian crew, including:
- 2 experienced pilots,
- 5 flight attendants.
Among the passengers who were on board the plane at the time of the disaster were 192 people. adults and 25 children. The oldest of them was 77 years old, the youngest girl was 10 months old. All people died in the crash. Photos of the dead were posted on several official websites.
List of passengers killed over Sinai
Most of the victims of the disaster lived in the northwestern regions of the Russian Federation; there were also 4 citizens of Ukraine and 2 from Belarus on the plane.
The list of those killed in the plane crash included:
- A. Kopylov – deputy head of the Pskov city administration,
- D. Gromova (10 months), whose photo became a symbol of the plane crash.
Chronology of events
Preceding circumstances
On October 30, 2015, Airbus A321-231 made 2 normal flights on the planned routes: Sharm al-Sheikh-Samara-Sharm al-Sheikh. The final disembarkation of passengers at the airport was completed at 15:30, and representatives of the crew who carried it out had no complaints about the condition of the equipment. The vessel underwent scheduled maintenance, and on the morning of October 31, 2015, a new crew took over (V. Nemov and S. Trukhachev), and preparations began for subsequent voyages - Sharm al-Sheikh-St. Petersburg-Sharm al-Sheikh.
The Kogalymavia company was a member of the international united holding company specializing in tourism - TH&C, which also included the Brisco company, which ordered a flight from Egypt to the Northern capital.
Catastrophe
At 5:50 local time in Egypt (6:50 Moscow time), the plane took off from Sharm al-Sheikh airport, headed north along the shore of the bay and gradually rose to 6.4 km. After 12 minutes of flight, the plane turned left to bypass the Sinai Peninsula and reach the Mediterranean, the pilots intended to gain an altitude of 9.75 km.
In the 23rd minute of the flight, the airliner picked up a speed of 755 km/h and climbed 9.4 km when the situation left the normal mode. The ship began to fall at a speed of 1.8 km/min. At 04:13 GES, the flight recorder recording was interrupted due to extraneous noise. After 24 minutes of flight, the plane crashed in Sinai and was instantly destroyed.
Search services found remains of the disaster among mountain ranges peninsula 50 km from the city of Nehel. The wreckage of the plane and fragments of the bodies of the dead were scattered over a radius of 13 km, over a total area of 30 km.
Reaction
President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin expressed words of condolences to the loved ones and relatives of the victims of the tragedy. To the Head of Government D.A. Medvedev was charged with creating a commission to investigate the causes of the plane crash. V. Putin called for finding and eliminating the terrorists responsible for the tragedy.
Condolences were expressed to the relatives of the victims, as well as to all Russians:
- presidents and prime ministers of more than 50 countries,
- Pope,
- general secretaries,
- heads of religious communities of the Russian Federation.
“Hotlines” were opened for relatives of the deceased passengers: by telephone one could find out all the information about the injured loved ones.
The scandalous French magazine Charlie Hebdo published three cartoons on its pages illustrating the plane crash, which caused sharp negative criticism from the Russian leadership and the public. The illustrations were called "blasphemous", "cruel" and "mocking towards the victims of the tragedy."
Fact. Representatives of the French Foreign Ministry responded that all journalists have the right to freely express personal opinions, but they do not always coincide with the position of the country's official leaders.
On November 20, 2015, the UN Security Council issued a statement condemning the terrorist attacks, including the disaster over Sinai.
Mourning
November 1, 2015 became a day of mourning for Russians. IN Northern capital three days of mourning took place, Leningrad region- four days.
Investigation into the causes of the Sinai tragedy
The investigation into the plane crash was carried out jointly by several countries, including Egypt and the Russian Federation, as well as representatives of Airbus and IASA.
On November 1, 2015, the investigation began: analysis of the information contained in the on-board recording devices, which practically survived, and examination of the remains of the victims. In Russia, a case was initiated under articles 263 and 238 of the Criminal Code of Russia.
The fact that the remains of the airliner were found in a large area of about 30 km allowed us to conclude that the tragedy occurred at a high altitude.
On November 7, 2015, the official leadership of Egypt spoke about the results of the decoding, from which it followed that extraneous loud sounds were heard at the end of the recording. At the end of the flight, an altitude of 9.415 km and a speed of about 520 km/h were recorded; the ship was moving under the guidance of an automatic pilot, who needed to gain altitude.
At that time, several versions of the causes of the plane crash were voiced:
- wear and tear of aircraft equipment;
- fuel tank ignition;
- damage to the aircraft's lithium battery.
On November 16, 2015, information was received that the plane crashed due to a terrorist act - an IED located at the rear of the airbus with a total capacity of 1 kg of TNT went off. This conclusion was made after residues of explosive substances not made in Russia were found on fragments of the plane, personal belongings and bodies of the victims.
Fact. On November 17, 2015, a public announcement was posted that a cash reward of $50 million would be paid for assistance in capturing the terrorists responsible for the plane crash.
Analysis of the remains of the aircraft showed that the IED went off in the rear of the ship, in rows 30-32.
On December 14, 2015, a special commission organized by the Egyptian leadership announced the completion of the investigation into the plane crash and the readiness of the report on it. It indicated that in the process of analyzing the causes of the tragedy, nothing was found indicating a terrorist attack. This is explained by the fact that in the opposite case, the indirect cause of the disaster would have been a flaw in the Egyptian airport security service.
At the beginning of 2016, the current head of Egypt admitted that the airliner crashed as a result of a terrorist attack.
Cause of the disaster
On November 3, 2015, it became known from sources in the US defense department that an American satellite noticed a bright flash corresponding to the location and time of the Airbus A321 accident. No evidence of being hit by the missile was recorded, as a temperature trace would have been observed. Ignition in the air indicated that the tragedy could not have occurred during landing.
A few days after the plane crash, one of the terrorist groups within ISIS announced its involvement in the incident. However, the official leadership of Egypt cited equipment malfunction as the alleged cause of the tragedy.
A number of media representatives, Russian and Egyptian heads of transport departments rejected the explosion hypothesis, calling it propaganda.
On November 5, 2015, the intelligence services of the United States and Great Britain supported the unofficial version of a terrorist attack based on information intercepted from ISIS militants about a bomb being planted on an airplane.
According to the assumptions of foreign intelligence services, expressed by various media, the IED was installed by terrorists subordinate to ISIS in the luggage compartment just before departure.
11/16/2015 at the Council of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin's version of the explosion of a homemade device was confirmed by the head of the Russian FSB A. Bortnikov.
On September 13, 2016, a special commission determined exactly where the bomb was located: in the department oversized luggage at the tail of the plane. To install the IED, the militants used the help of an employee of the Sharm al-Sheikh airport: just before the flight, a package with an explosive was planted, after which it was covered with strollers and suitcases.
Consequences of the disaster
After the tragedy, many aviation companies, including Kogalymavia, stopped flying over Sinai until the exact causes of the crash were clarified.
From 4 to 6 November 2015, the Governments of Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, Germany and other European countries suspended regular air services over the Sinai Peninsula.
11/16/2015 V.V. Putin announced that Russia will continue to look for the causes of the disaster; it is necessary to join forces and punish those responsible for the tragedy.
Fact. After the disaster in Egypt, an order was issued to intensify air strikes against the terrorist organization ISIS.
Conclusion
The plane crash over the Sinai Peninsula became the largest in the history of Russian passenger aviation. On October 23, 2017, a monument to those who died over the Sinai was erected in St. Petersburg. On October 31, 2017, a memorial to the victims was laid in Vsevolozhsk.
00:59 An expert in a conversation with RT said that terrorists from the Islamic State could have shot down the plane. In his opinion, their statement about involvement in the tragedy was of a propaganda nature.
00:46 The media reported that.
00:20 The third plane of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation.
October 31
23:59 The head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov and other government members to investigate the causes of the tragedy and coordinate rescue efforts.
23:55 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, among whom were also three citizens of the country.
20:59
19:18 Airline France has decided to avoid flying over the Sinai in the near future as a precaution after the crash of a Russian Kogalymavia plane.
18:12 The Lukoil-Aero-Samara company reported that the crashed Kogalymavia airliner refueled in Samara before flying to Egypt; the crew had no complaints upon arrival in Sharm el-Sheikh.
17:44 The offices of the tour operator Brisco are being searched in connection with the plane crash in Egypt.
17:10 The official representative of the Russian Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said that another criminal case was opened after the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt.
15:38: Among the passengers of the Kogalymavia plane that crashed in Egypt, according to preliminary data from the Belarusian Embassy in Egypt, there was one citizen of this country, TASS reports.
15:28: Among the passengers of the Russian plane that crashed in Egypt were three citizens of Ukraine. RIA Novosti reports this with reference to a representative of the Egyptian authorities.
15:17: None of those on board the plane that crashed in Egypt survived, RIA Novosti reports a Reuters report citing representatives of the Egyptian authorities.
14:43: Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said that there were no special bans on flights over the Sinai region, where the Kogalymavia plane took its route.
14:39: The Russian Embassy in Egypt states that there were 212 passengers and 7 crew members on board the Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt.
14.25: Relatives of passengers on the Kogalymavia plane gathered at Pulkovo airport.
13.53: Rescuers found one of the flight recorders at the crash site of a Russian airliner in Egypt. RIA Novosti reports this with reference to local media.
13:42 The official representative of the Russian Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said that Russian investigators with experience in investigating plane crashes flew to Egypt.
12.57: Vladimir Putin instructed the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations to send Russian rescuers to Egypt.
12.53: Egyptian rescuers and emergency services have begun examining the site of the probable crash of the Kogalymavia airliner in North Sinai.
11.43: Flight 7K9268 was descending at about 6,000 feet per minute before the signal was lost, Flightradar reported.
11.42: The Russian plane that crashed in Sinai was completely destroyed, most of the passengers were probably killed, RIA Novosti reports, citing the security service at the scene of the emergency.
11.40: Absolutely contradictory information continues to be received about the fate of the aircraft.
11.34: There were 200 adults, 17 children and 7 crew members on board the plane, a source in the Federal Air Transport Agency reports.
11.25: The head of Egypt's air transport safety agency, Ayman al-Muqaddan, said that the Kogalymavia plane is intact and continues to fly over Turkey.
11.24: Employees of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that they are trying to understand the situation with the Kogalymavia plane.
11.21 : A headquarters is being set up in Pulkovo to help the relatives of the passengers of the missing plane.
11.07: Source in civil aviation Egypt says the Russian airliner crashed in the Nehel area of North Sinai.
10.57: Flightradar on its Twitter does not confirm the data about the plane crash, while simultaneously reporting that the airliner sharply decreased in altitude before disappearing from the radar.
10.45: Messages continue to appear that confirm the plane crashed. Egyptian security forces have cordoned off the crash site, and about twenty ambulances have been sent from the city of El-Arish in northern Sinai to evacuate victims of the disaster, RIA Novosti reports, citing data from the Prime Minister's Office.
10.44: The Prime Minister of Egypt confirms the data on the plane crash and announces a change in his schedule in connection with the tragedy.
10.42: The first reports appearing on Reuters and Sky News refuting the plane crash. Publication sources claim that the crew of the missing plane made contact in Turkey.
10.40: A number of media reports that the wreckage of a Russian civil aircraft was found in the center of the Sinai Peninsula.
10.20: Arab media report that a Russian plane crashed in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula.
10.18: The first reports of loss appear Airbus aircraft Kogalymavia company from radars. According to various sources, there are from 207 to 224 people on board. Media reports say the plane went missing near Larnaca in Cyprus.
Exactly one year ago, a Russian plane crashed over Sinai as a result of a terrorist attack. 224 people died in the plane crash. At the crash site, our country conducted an unprecedented search operation, and all surviving parts of the aircraft were found. The Investigative Committee stated that it will continue the criminal case until all those involved in this terrorist act are identified. On October 31, Russia remembers the victims of this terrible tragedy.
The funeral prayer began at 07:15 - this is the time the plane hit the ground. Nadezhda Volkova lost her son Nikolai in that terrible plane crash. Together with his wife Lera, he flew to Honeymoon. They were 32, reports.
“I don’t remember how I was driving home. When I arrived, my husband was destroying everything, beating, shouting: “They are no more.” No, you understand?" But I didn’t believe it. And he said to me: “Look, the lists have arrived,” recalls Nadezhda Volkova.
Board A321 of the Kogalymavia company was operating charter flight number 9268 on the route Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg. 23 minutes after takeoff, the plane disappeared from radar. After another two hours, Egyptian Air Force aircraft discovered debris in the central Sinai Peninsula.
At the St. Petersburg Pulkovo airport, the line on the electronic display all this time was on: arrival at 12:09. Then all the relatives meeting this flight were invited to board the bus and taken away from the television cameras. This is how the morning of October 31, 2015 began. In the evening, people brought flowers to the Arrival terminal.
The plane crash over Sinai killed 224 people, including seven crew members and 25 children. Almost all passengers were residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. The crash of the A321 aircraft was the largest mass death of Russian citizens in a plane crash in the history of world aviation and the largest disaster in the history of Egypt.
An international investigation into the causes of the tragedy is still ongoing. Preliminary results will be announced before the end of the year. Russian news agencies reported this last Thursday with reference to Egyptian media. Representatives of Russia, Egypt, France, Germany, Ireland, the USA, as well as consultants from Airbus Industry are taking part in the investigation.
“There is a general version, which has already become the main one, that terrorists from the Egyptian IS cell are behind the disaster over the Sinai Peninsula ( The organization's activities are prohibited in Russia - editor's note.),” said Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine and director of the Center for Analysis of the Global Arms Trade.
An explosive device was planted in luggage right at Sharm el-Sheikh airport. It went off in the air. The airliner fell from a height of almost 10 thousand meters, and flew in a downward arc, losing altitude, at a speed of 30 meters per second. In Russia, the version of the explosion on board the A321 of an improvised explosive device with a capacity of up to a kilogram of TNT was officially announced on November 16, 2015 at a meeting with the president.
Egyptian authorities have become the latest to officially recognize the downing of the airliner as a terrorist act. The Egyptian president first publicly stated this only in February, four months after the plane crash.
“For Egypt, the recognition of the organization of a terrorist attack of this kind associated with the movement of tourists is a disaster for the tourism sector. In fact, this is what is happening today in Egypt. For a whole year they have been trying to restore the tourist flow, which is the main component of the Egyptian economy,” explained the director of the International institute newest states, political scientist Alexey Martynov.
On October 31, 2015, a Russian aircraft Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia Airlines (Metrojet), operating flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, .
On instructions from the President, the Russian government in connection with the disaster, headed by Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) was under the leadership of the executive director of the committee, Viktor Sorochenko.
Cairo immediately after the disaster about the opportunity to take part in the investigation of the tragedy. A special commission of investigation was created, including: Russia, Egypt, France (the state of the aircraft’s developer), Germany (the state of the airliner’s manufacturer) and Ireland (the state of registration). Ayman al-Muqaddam was appointed head of the commission to investigate the disaster.
On November 1, 2015, Egyptian Prosecutor General Nabil Ahmed Sadek invited Russian specialists to participate in the investigation into the causes of the crash of a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula.
A group of investigators and criminologists from the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia, in agreement with the competent authorities and together with representatives of the Republic of Egypt, in accordance with the norms of national and international law, participated in the inspection of the scene of the plane crash in Egypt.
On November 17, 2015, the head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bortnikov, during a meeting in the Kremlin on the results of the investigation into the causes of the crash of a Russian plane, that as a result of an examination of personal belongings, luggage and parts of the plane that crashed in Egypt, traces of foreign-made explosives were identified. He .
In turn, the Egyptian authorities urged not to rush to conclusions. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that as part of a criminal investigation.
In March 2016, the International Commission of Inquiry into the crash of the Russian A321 aircraft announced that it had received an official report from the Investigative Committee of Russia and transferred it to the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office to complete legal procedures. The commission itself, despite the transfer of the case to the investigative authorities of the country's state security, continued the technical examination of the wreckage of the airliner.
In mid-April, Egypt's Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek announced the transfer of the case of the Russian plane crash to the country's High State Security Prosecutor's Office. The decision of the head of the supervisory agency, as noted in the text of the statement, was made on the basis of data from the report of the Investigative Committee of Russia, “which indicates a suspicion of the presence of a criminal trail.”
In June, CIA Director John Brennan, speaking in the Senate of the US Congress, said that American intelligence has information about the involvement of the Egyptian group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which swore allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist movement banned in many countries, in the explosion on the Russian passenger plane A321. (an organization banned in the Russian Federation), and on August 4, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense announced the elimination of the leader of this terrorist group.
At the insistence of the Investigative Committee of Russia, an international commission to investigate the aviation accident. As a result of the work carried out, the fact of the influence of high-energy elements on the skin of the aircraft in the “inside-out” direction and “explosive decompression” in flight was established.
In October 2016, an investigation commission formed by the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office sent twelve pieces of the aircraft to a scientific alloys laboratory for a detailed study.
Work to determine the causes of the crash. To date, the parties have no understanding of what happened to the plane, how the explosive device got on board the plane, or who carried it. There are also no identified suspects or their accomplices from among the airport employees.
Today's disaster in Egypt has become the largest in terms of the number of victims in the history of modern Russia. Let us recall other serious losses in emergencies involving Russian aircraft:
170 people class="_">(160 passengers and 10 crew members) died on August 22, 2006 in a plane crash near the village of Sukhaya Balka (Donetsk region, Ukraine). The Tu-154 aircraft of Pulkovo Airlines was flying from Anapa to St. Petersburg. The cause of the disaster was the incorrect actions of the crew in difficult weather conditions, as a result of which the plane fell into a flat tailspin.
145 people class="_"> (136 passengers, 9 crew members) died on July 3, 2001 when a Tu-154 was landing at Irkutsk airport. The plane of the Vladivostok-Avia airline was flying Vladivostok – Irkutsk – Yekaterinburg. The cause of the disaster was recognized as the erroneous actions of the crew.
141 people class="_">, including 11 crew members, died on August 29, 1996 in the crash of a Tu-154M of Vnukovo Airlines, flying on the route Moscow - Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen). During landing, the plane crashed into Mount Opera, 14.2 km from the airport. The cause of the disaster was crew error.
125 people class="_">(116 passengers, 9 crew members and 1 person on the ground) died on January 3, 1994 near Irkutsk as a result of a Tu-154M plane crash of Baikal Airlines, which was flying to Moscow. 3.5 minutes after takeoff, one of its engines caught fire. The pilots turned the plane back to Irkutsk, but it lost control and crashed into a dairy farm. The cause of the disaster was said to be technical problems.
125 people class="_"> (120 passengers, 5 crew members) died on the night of July 9, 2006 when landing in Irkutsk Airbus A310 of Siberia Airlines, flying from Moscow. The plane skidded off the runway, crashed into nearby garages and exploded. The reason was the erroneous actions of the crew.
52 people class="_"> (46 passengers, 6 crew members) died on November 17, 2013 in international airport Kazan. Boeing-737-500 operated a flight on the route Moscow – Kazan. The airliner crashed during landing. Among the dead are the son of the President of Tatarstan, the head of the FSB Directorate of Tatarstan and the family of the famous sports commentator Roman Skvortsov.
44 people class="_"> (36 passengers, 8 crew) died on September 7, 2011. The Yak-42 airliner was transporting the Lokomotiv hockey team from Yaroslavl to Minsk. During the takeoff run, the plane rolled off the runway and took off from the ground 400 meters beyond the end of the runway. The flight lasted several seconds: the airliner gained a height of no more than 5–6 meters, then collided with a radio beacon, crashed into the ground on the bank of the Tunoshonka River and exploded. Some of the debris and the tail fell into the river.