Spotlight: Heat detected around Russian passenger plane before crash

U.S. satellite systems detected heat around the Russian aircraft before it crashed over Egypt and killed all 224 people aboard, reports said Tuesday, citing two U.S. officials.

One of the officials said on condition of anonymity that they ruled out a missile striking the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 because neither a launch nor an engine burn had been detected, according to AP reports.

Analysts said it might indicate there was an explosion or disintegration of the plane, but it's still unclear what caused it.

Some aviation experts earlier suggested a bomb was the most likely cause of Saturday's crash, while some others pointed at a 2001 incident in which the jet damaged its tail during landing.

In Egypt, an international team of experts are preparing to analyze the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

Russian officials have earlier said the jet had broken up in midair.

But on Tuesday, Egypt's civil aviation ministry said there were no facts to substantiate the assertions.

Spokesman Mohamed Rahmi confirmed that no distress call had been received before the crash, which left wreckage from the jet, which was carrying Russian holidaymakers back to St. Petersburg from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, strewn over more than 3 km of desert.

Rahmi said the investigation team, led by Egypt and aided by experts from Russia, Airbus and Ireland, where the plane is registered, had returned to the crash site on Tuesday.

Once investigations at the site were completed, they would focus on analyzing the contents of the black box flight recorders, Rahmi said.

Rahmi said there was no proof yet that the plane had broken up in flight. "This could be a long process and we can't talk about the results as we go along," he said.

A militant group affiliated to the Islamic State (IS) in Egypt has claimed responsibility for the crash.

But according to experts, militants could not down a plane at 30,000 feet (9,000 meters) altitude, at which the Russian Airbus 321 was flying.

Tallaat Muslam, a security and strategic expert, told Xinhua that militants affiliated to the IS in Sinai do not own surface-to-air missiles and that their capabilities are poor.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday stressed the necessity of not jumping to incorrect conclusions over the crash before any results of the investigation are announced.

"This is a complicated matter and requires advanced technologies and broad investigations that could take months," Sisi said.

The Russian airliner crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday while heading from Sharm el-Sheikh airport to St. Petersburg. All 224 people on board, mostly Russian tourists, were killed.

Some 144 victims' bodies have already been transferred to the Russian city of St. Petersburg, the Russian ambassador to Egypt said.

All the remaining bodies will be transported to Russia via St. Petersburg airport, as their families are waiting there. Most of the passengers of the ill-fated plane were from St. Petersburg and the neighboring regions, the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kerbachenko, told Xinhua.

Family members have been providing DNA samples at a crisis center near St. Petersburg airport. Endi