Spotlight: Russian sends security experts to Egypt, flights busy evacuating tourists

The first team of Russian inspectors has arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to conduct security checks at the airport after the Oct. 31 airline disaster.

The experts are focusing their work in the pre-departure area, airport deputy director Hani Ramzy told Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti on Sunday.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on the same day that a second and third team of security experts will soon arrive to manage checks on all major airports in Egypt.

Dvorkovich said that 11,000 Russians were flown home from Egypt on Saturday and an even larger number were expected to leave on Sunday, according to Russian media reports.

International passengers desperate to leave Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh continued to line up for flights on Sunday after the Russian Metrojet Airbus A321-200's crash in the Sinai Peninsula that killed all 224 people onboard.

About 10 special flights have departed for Egypt to bring home about 80,000 Russian tourists currently in Egypt, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Saturday.

"According to the latest data, there are some 80,000 people. The number is reducing, because there are scheduled flights from all the three cities: Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, to Russia," Dvorkovich was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

The Egyptian military is now providing additional security measures for the evacuation at the country's airports, Dvorkovich added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered all of his country's scheduled flights to Egypt be suspended amid rising speculation that terrorist attacks were possibly behind the Russian plane crash.

The Kremlin stressed that the suspension of flights did not mean Russia believes a terrorist attack was the cause of the plane crash.

As several U.S. media reports cited unnamed sources as saying that a planted bomb might have caused the crash of the Russian plane, Britain, Ireland and some other countries have suspended their flights to and from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh over terrorism concerns.

The wreckage of the Russian plane will be moved soon to the capital Cairo, while there is still no evidence of the reason of the crash, the head of the Egypt-led investigation committee told reporters on Saturday.

"The wreckage will be recovered to a safe and secure place in Cairo for further examination of each part," committee chief Ayman al-Mokadem said, adding that the 47-member investigation team was still in the process of information gathering.

The investigation panel said in the statement that the VCR in the black box was successfully downloaded, and during the first listening "a noise was heard in the last second."

As to allegation of terrorist bomb as the cause of the tragedy, the panel chief said "the committee was not provided with any information or evidence in this regard."

"The committee urges the sources of such reports to provide it with all information that could help us to undertake our mission," said Mokadem.

The committee consists of 49 members, 29 from Egypt, seven from Russia, six from France and two from Germany besides other airline consultants. Endit