Off the wire
• China Voice: 2020 development targets will be surely delivered  • Xi congratulates Nepal's Bhandari on inauguration as president  • 3rd LD-Writethru-Xinhua Insight: China's first big passenger plane rolls off production line  • China Focus: FTA advances fruitful China, ROK cooperation  • Interview: Tennis Australia's push to capture "exploding" Asian market  • Largest Nordic toy retailer to sell 75 pct stake to Swedish private equity group  • China unveils detailed scheme to deepen rural reform  • Roundup: Retrieved bodies in Russian airliner crash flown back home: ambassador  • 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference kicks off in Geneva  • Senior official meets representatives of non-profit organizations from Taiwan  
You are here: 　 Home

Spotlight: Russian aircraft torn apart in midair, national mourning held

Xinhua, November 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Russian aircraft, which crashed over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, reportedly disintegrated in midair and Russia has held a series of mourning events for victims of the disaster.

Egypt's state-run newspaper Ahram quoted an official with Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee as saying the disintegration happened in the air and fragments are strewn over a large area.

Russian Intergovernmental Aviation Committee Director Viktor Sorochenko said it was too early to determine the cause of the tragedy.

Sorochenko leads an international committee made up of experts from Russia, Egypt, France and Ireland to probe the crash. Investigation began early Sunday, started with an analysis of the plane's two black box data recorders which were recovered late Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Forensic Medicine Authority (FMA) has started to deliver the bodies of the victims of the mishap to the Russian Embassy in Cairo

As many as 187 dead bodies were found so far in the scene of the crash, Egypt's state-run MENA news agency reported.

Initial investigation showed that there were no eye-witnesses and some videos of the accident posted online were found fake.

The Egyptian cabinet said on Sunday that the search effort has widened after finding bodies scattered across 8 square km.

Declaring Nov. 1 a national day of mourning for the air disaster, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered on Sunday to lower national flags throughout the country and suggested that cultural institutions as well as television and radio stations cancel entertainment shows and events.

In Russia's second largest city St. Petersburg, remembrance activities were launched earlier in the day and would last three days, with both Russia's national flag and St. Petersburg's city flag flying at half mast.

A special mourning zone has been set up at the city's Pulkovo airport, the destination of the ill-fated flight 7K9268. Despite continuous rain, people turned up at the airport, laying flowers and lighting candles to express their condolences for the victims and their families and friends.

The Airbus A-321 operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia, with 217 Russian passengers and seven crew members on board, crashed into a mountainous area in the restive Sinai Peninsula shortly after it took off from Egypt's Red Sea Resort Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday.

The black boxes of the crashed plane have been found, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said at a press conference.

A militant group affiliated to the Islamic State (IS) in Egypt claimed responsibility for the crash, but the claim can not be verified.

Ismail said on Saturday it was impossible to determine the cause of the crash until the black boxes were examined.

"Experts asserted that a plane flying that high technically cannot be shot down (by the IS)," Ismail said, adding that no "irregular" activities were believed to be behind the crash. Endi