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Spotlight: Russia awaits concrete evidence on plane crash amid allegations of explosion

Xinhua, November 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Russia is still waiting for concrete proof regarding the cause of the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 crash last weekend in Egypt while Eruopean investigators believe an explosion is the probable cause after analyzing two flight recorders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered all of his country's flights to Egypt be suspended amid rising speculation that terrorist attacks were possibly behind the Russian plane crash in the north African nation's Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, nevertheless, stressed that the decision did not mean Russia believes a terrorist attack was the cause of the plane crash.

"Still, no theory can dominate, as there are no clear indications in favor of this version," Peskov said, adding that only official investigation could determine which of the theories looked most plausible.

France 2 TV said there was a "distinct sound of explosion" during the flight, quoting "an investigator who had access to the black boxes" of the Metrojet plane.

Experts from France's BEA accident investigation agency are now in Egypt investigating the crash as the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 was made in France.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond had said earlier there existed "a significant possibility that the crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft."

On Wednesday, the Cable News Network (CNN) also quoted a U.S. intelligence source as saying that the Russian jet was most likely brought down by a bomb planted by the terror group Islamic State (IS) or its affiliate.

Alexander Neradko, chief of Russia's Federal Aviation Agency Rosaviatsia, told the Rossiya-24 TV channel Thursday that experts will examine whether there was any dangerous material on board the plane.

The Metrojet plane, which was bound for Russia's second-largest city St. Petersburg, crashed early Saturday about 23 minutes after taking off from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all its 224 passengers and crew members, mostly Russians.

The Sinai-based group "Sinai State" that had pledged loyalty to the IS claimed responsibility for the crash soon after it happened, but Moscow has dismissed the claim as incredible.

Information from the plane's flight data recorders has been successfully copied and passed to the inquiry commission to be decoded, processed and analyzed, Interfax said in a separate report, citing the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC). Endit