Downed Russian jet: Putin suspends flights to Egypt

An airport worker may have put a bomb on Metrojet Flight 9268, a report says, and that resultant crash has resulted into far reaching decisions by the Russian President.

Vladimir Putin has agreed to suspend Russian air traffic with Egypt until the cause of the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 can be determined, the Kremlin said Friday.

“Putin has accepted the recommendations of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee to suspend flights with Egypt. … The President has also instructed to provide assistance to Russian citizens to return from Egypt. In addition, the President has instructed to engage with the Egyptian side to ensure the safety of air traffic,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russia had until now resisted the theory that a bomb brought down the airliner, possibly because any terrorist bombing of a Russian plane could be seen as retaliation for Putin’s decision to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and launch airstrikes against the terrorist group ISIS and other Assad opponents.

Russia’s about-face buttressed a theory about the cause of Saturday’s crash in Sinai, Egypt. As investigators pick through the rubble of the Russian airliner, and as Western officials sift through their own intelligence reports, some suspect that Flight 9268 was brought down by a bomb planted in its hold.

And that the bomb may have been smuggled on board in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the flight departed.

British Intelligence suspects bomb in hold

Flight 9268, carrying mostly Russian families returning from Red Sea vacations, was flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, Russia. It took off shortly before 6 a.m.

Twenty-three minutes into the flight, more than 30,000 feet above sea level, the plane disappeared from radar. A U.S. satellite detected a heat flash over the Sinai Peninsula. The plane broke apart and fell to earth. All aboard were killed.

On Friday, the body of Valery Nemov, the plane’s captain, was on its way home to the Volgograd region, 600 miles south-southeast of Moscow, for burial, the RIA Novosti news agency said.

Nemov had 12,000 hours of flying experience, meaning that nearly a year and a half of his life had been spent flying a plane. His mother is reported to be in a hospital, receiving psychological care

Funerals for some of the passengers began Thursday in Russia and continued Friday.

The intelligence on what caused the crash isn’t definitive, Obama said in an interview Thursday with Seattle radio station KIRO.

Egypt is leading the crash investigation. Russia, France, Germany and Ireland also have investigators on the ground. The United States and the United Kingdom aren’t part of the investigative team combing over forensic evidence from the scene.

And neither the United States nor the United Kingdom has shared intelligence about a possible bomb with Egyptian authorities, Egyptian officials said.
Credit: CNN‎

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