Was there a disaster over the shinai. Pain, fear and tears

Exactly one year ago, on October 31, 2015, the A321 aircraft of the Russian airline Kogalymavia, flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, disappeared from radar 23 minutes after takeoff. There were 224 people on board: 217 passengers, mostly tourists from Russia, and seven crew members; none of them survived. About the consequences of the largest disaster in the history of Russian aviation and the course of its investigation - in the RBC photo gallery.

October 31, 2015. The wreckage of the liner was found near the airport in the city of El Arish in the Sinai Peninsula. Among the first versions of the disaster were called a technical malfunction, external influence and an explosion on board.

As stated by the International Aviation Committee (IAC), the dispersion of debris A321 indicates that the aircraft broke up in the air. Following this, the management of Kogalymavia said that this could only happen as a result of external influence.

November 1, 2015. The bodies of those killed in the A321 crash began to be delivered to St. Petersburg, and within five days the identification of the victims by external signs was completed. A month later, all the identified remains were handed over to the relatives of the dead, and it was decided to bury all the unidentified ones in a mass grave in one of the St. Petersburg cemeteries.

In the photo: the bodies of those killed in a plane crash over Sinai were delivered to St. Petersburg

The crash killed 25 children aged 2 to 17. On November 1, national mourning was declared in Russia. In St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, where most of the victims were from, mourning was extended for several days.

In the photo: a spontaneous memorial in the arrivals area of ​​Pulkovo airport

November 3, 2015. The head of the Ministry of Labor Maxim Topilin reported to Vladimir Putin that the families of those killed in the plane crash would receive 2 million rubles from the state. In addition, the administration of St. Petersburg decided to pay them 500 thousand rubles each.

In the photo: a relative of one of those who died during the funeral at the Bogoslovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg

November 8, 2015. The Commission for the Investigation of the Causes of the Air Crash A321 published the results of a preliminary analysis of the records of both "black boxes". The recording of the parametric recorder did not contain information about the failure of the systems and components of the aircraft, and it itself was interrupted in the process of climbing the liner to a height of 9400 m. evacuation of tourists and a flight ban.

November 8, 2015. The Associated Press, citing Sharm el-Sheikh Airport employees, reported serious systematic violations of airport security rules, non-working scanners and bribes from airport employees in the baggage screening area. In particular, the agency wrote, there was practically no inspection of vehicles delivering food and fuel to aircraft.

Pictured: Sharm el-Sheikh airport security at check-in counters

Photo: Alexei Nikolsky/press service of the President of the Russian Federation/TASS

November 17, 2015. The head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, at a meeting with Vladimir Putin, said that an explosive device with a capacity of up to 1 kg of TNT went off on board the A321, and traces of foreign-made explosives were found on the wreckage of the aircraft. The President instructed the Russian special services to find and destroy those responsible for the crash of the liner.

In the photo: Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, President Vladimir Putin, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov (from left to right) during a minute of silence at the beginning of a meeting on the results of the investigation into the causes of the crash A321

November 18, 2015. The terrorist organization "Islamic State", banned in Russia, has distributed a photo of the alleged explosive device planted on board the A321. In the photo, on a blue background, there is a can of Schweppes Gold soft drink, and next to it is an alleged detonator. The Islamic State said in a statement that the planting of the bomb on board the Russian aircraft was possible through a loophole in the security service of the Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

November 20, 2015. Rostourism announced the completion of the program for the evacuation of Russian tourists from Egypt. It was reported that at the time of the tragedy their number was about 45 thousand people. According to the results of the first quarter of 2016, the income of the Egyptian tourism industry fell by 66%.

In the photo: the territory of one of the hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh in early November 2015

January 9, 2016. It became known that an EgyptAir airline technician is suspected of involvement in the crash of the A321, whose cousin joined the Islamic State terrorist group banned in Russia. The technician was detained along with two policemen who worked at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport and a baggage handler, who may have helped him carry the bomb on board.

September 13, 2016. Experts in Egypt have identified the site where the bomb that caused the A321 crash in the sky over Sinai was planted in the oversized baggage compartment at the tail of the aircraft. It also turned out that the terrorists hired an airport service employee to plant the bomb: the package with explosives was brought into the compartment first, after which it was planted with baby carriages and furniture, safely hidden from prying eyes.

October 16, 2016. The Egyptian authorities said that the joint work of the Egyptian and Russian sides on the issue of resuming flights continues and they have hope for a speedy resolution of the issue. The Egyptian side promised to eliminate all the shortcomings identified by Russian experts in the security systems of local airports by winter, but Russian tour operators assume that flights will be resumed no earlier than spring 2017.

The root causes of the tragedy in Sinai, perhaps, should be sought in the events of 14 years ago

We learn about most airlines in Russia when a disaster occurs. Up to this point, everything seems to be going well - the planes are flying, the passengers do not complain, the state is on the alert. But the "golden" rule of an official - the main thing is not to work, but to create an appearance - alas, it also applies to aviation. Let's see what the Kogalymavia airline is like, whose plane crashed in the Sinai. And let's try to understand why it was possible at all.

The first flights of Kogalymavia began in 1993. At first, her clientele was monotonous - they were oil and gas workers, as well as everyone who was associated with the mining industry. The company's fleet consisted of two aircraft - Tu-134 and Tu-154, and the main flights were made back and forth between Kogalym, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk and, of course, Moscow. Other cities - Anapa, Baku, Volgograd, Kyiv, Mineralnye Vody, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Simferopol, Sochi - were transported less frequently when a sufficient number of applications accumulated. Several Kogalymavia aircraft, along with their crews, were leased to the airline and flew in Iran.

It is not strange that the first owners of Kogalymavia were closely associated with LUKOIL (in fact, the abbreviation LUKOIL stands for Langepas, Uray, Kogalym - the company's largest production regions at that time). But then the carrier changed hands. According to Russian and foreign online publications, Kogalymavia is now owned by the Western Aviation Investment Company (ZAIK). This structure specializes in activities such as vehicle rental, installation, repair and maintenance services for pumps and compressors, and other special-purpose machines.

ZAIK has an excellent Caucasian trace. The company is owned by entrepreneurs Amirbek Gagaev, Buvaysar Khalidov (27.8% each) and Khamit Jankut Bagana (44.4%). The latter has Turkish citizenship and has been in the tourism business for over 35 years. Moreover, it is a shareholder of the largest Turkish private airline Onur Air, in which the crashed A321 previously flew.

A turning point in the history of Kogalymavia happened in 2009. The company purchased Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, and at the end of 2011 completely stopped operating the “carcasses”. In May 2012, Kogalymavia rebranded and became known as MetroJet. What it was connected with is not clear. But, according to unofficial information circulating among aviation business specialists, such a decision was made in connection with the interests of one of Kogalymavia's partners, the BRISCO tour operator, which, as they say in the market, is Viskhan Tabulaev. He also manages ZAIK, whose office is located in the same business center as MetroJet. Curiously, BRISCO changed its name from Lagina Travel (as BRISCO has been called since it was founded in 2004) in the same 2012 when Kogalymavia became MetroJet. It is also worth noting that the tragic flight to Sharm al-Sheikh was commissioned by Brisco. Its owner, Viskhan Tabulaev, simultaneously runs the Western Aviation Investment Company.

Such a close fusion of aviation with the tourist industry is found all over the world. And in our case, the tour operator and the carrier have common beneficiaries. In this case, this is Bagana, already mentioned by us, and Ismail Lepiev, a native of Chechnya. Their common office may have been seen more than once by lovers of Antalya beaches: an artsy box of glass and concrete under the sign of the Prince Group. The tourism component of the holding, represented by Lepiev, is called Tourism Holding and Consulting CJSC (this system also includes the tour operator BRISCO)

In total, until recently, the MetroJet fleet had 10 aircraft: two Airbus A320s, seven A321s and one Canadair Challenger 850 (this is one of the largest business aircraft, allowing you to carry from 13 to 19). The average age of aircraft is 14 years.

The crashed A321 was 18 years old. It was registered in Ireland. Its airworthiness certificate was valid until March 2016. For the first few years, he flew with the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines, then with the Saudi Saudi Arabian Airlines, then with the Turkish Onur Air (remember Hamit Jankut Bagan, the largest co-owner of ZAIK) and finally the Syrian Cham Wings Airlines.

Here it would be appropriate to quote the interview of Zelimkhan ZARMAEV, Deputy Director General of TkhyK, two years ago to the Biblio Globus portal. It is specifically about the Airbus, whose flight was tragically interrupted on Saturday morning.

METROJET, in order to fulfill its obligations to passengers during the tourist season, leased two AIRBUS A-321-200 aircraft in Ireland, submitting all the necessary documents for certification of aircraft to the competent authority. The agency, in turn, did not allow airbuses to fly, demanding that aircraft be equipped with icing sensors. But this requirement is not justified.... Since the aircraft had already been certified in Ireland, their registration by the Russian responsible agency should have become a purely formal procedure. However, we faced a bureaucratic delay, from which, ultimately, the passengers of our airline suffered.

Passengers really suffered - a number of flights had to be postponed. For the airline, recognized in 2012 as "the most punctual", the trouble is really not ordinary. Unfortunately, while caring about punctuality, the aviators themselves seem to have periodically forgotten about safety. At least, Kogalymavia's troubles happened more than once, and sometimes with a fatal outcome. In January 2010, at the Iranian airport of Mashhad, his Tu-154 aircraft, during landing (which was made rather rudely), the landing gear broke and the tail was partially torn off. About 40 people were injured, and the accident was attributed to adverse weather conditions.

In the spring of the same year, an Airbus A320, flying to Hurghada, crashed at Domodedovo Airport. The cause was a malfunction in the hydraulic system. On board the airliner, an alarm went off warning of a low level of pressure in the system. The aircraft commander decided to return to the airport to ensure the safety of the aircraft.

At the beginning of 2011, the Tu-154B-2 of the Kogalymavia airline, performing the Surgut- flight, burned down at the Surgut airport. The fire broke out in the tail section of the aircraft while taxiing. One of the fuel tanks exploded and burned the entire fuselage. As a result, three people died and 40 people were injured. More about this in the adjacent material through the lips of the leader of the Na-Na group, Bari Alibasov.

And finally on October 31, 2015. Airbus A321 en route Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg crashed 100 km from El Arish in Egypt. The main version of the crash is a technical malfunction. Whether this is so, the investigation will show.

In the meantime, the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Transport issued an order to Kogalymavia to suspend flights of A321 aircraft. According to Interfax, by November 2, the company must assess the condition of the Airbuses and all the risks associated with their flights.

But whether this will help is a big question. According to some information, the plane that crashed almost 15 years ago, on November 16, 2001, had an accident at the Beirut airport. Then it was operated by the Lebanese MEA. He received a "tail strike" or "tailstrike" on the runway. It underwent repairs, then flew to Saudi destinations, Syrian and Russian-Turkish lines.

Just what is a "tail kick"? One of the worst aircraft "injuries" is when the vehicle comes into dangerous contact with the runway. This can happen both during takeoff and during landing.

However, the A321 did not crash in the air. And what about the "tail kick"? Not so simple. Such an accident causes significant damage to the owner and endangers the lives of passengers.

But any damage to the aircraft, even repaired, is like a cancerous tumor. Their consequences can manifest themselves many years after the accident and the subsequent repair of the aircraft. Two cases can be cited - in 1985 on a Japan Airlines line, which claimed the lives of 520 people, and in 2002 with a China Airlines aircraft, which caused the death of 224 passengers. Improper repair of the damage sustained by the "tail strike" resulted in the aircraft's subsequent mid-air destruction.

As the president of the Infrastructure Development Fund told MK air transport"Partner of civil aviation" Oleg Smirnov, if the repair of the aircraft after the "tail strike" was carried out by qualified specialists, and the parts and equipment were replaced with "native" or certified products, then there will be no accident of any aircraft transport vehicle. But if there is some kind of “forgery” for supposedly replaceable parts, then the worst can be expected. Including accidents decades later.”

In this regard, a major disaster is recalled in 1979 in the United States, when a Douglas DC-10 plane crashed on takeoff from the Chicago O "Hara airport due to separation from the pylon (suspension under the wing) of the left engine (271 people died and several people on Investigation revealed that after scheduled maintenance of the engine, mechanics installed it according to a simplified scheme, which caused microcracks at the attachment point.

Experts do not rule out that the unscrupulous repair of the A321 after the accident in 2001 caused its crash in 2015.

However, there are opinions that the fall of the Kogalymavia plane is "the average temperature in the hospital." The accident rate on air transportation in Russia is growing every year. This is largely due to the expansion of private passenger air routes in the mid-2000s. Over the past 10 years, according to some, more than 4,000 private jets and helicopters have been registered. Abroad, many can afford to buy a helicopter aircraft. In America, for example, there are about 750,000 private aircraft.

But does Russia need it? Over Moscow, where the largest finances of the country are concentrated, only the biggest officials are allowed to fly on their own vehicles. In the regions, sometimes getting to your destination by regular routes is both cheaper and more convenient.

In this case, the question is brewing - is it possible to turn the system into some kind of uniformity. That is, there will be one, two or three (even up to a dozen) carriers and the antimonopoly law will not be violated. Approximately with such a proposal, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Alexei Pushkov, is speaking. He proposed to reduce the number of national air carriers to three. “I noticed that the catastrophes of the last 50 years, as a rule, are associated with medium-sized companies,” the parliamentarian notes.

At the same time, the majority of problematic situations, including fatal accidents, are associated not only with companies that make or service flights, but also with the aircraft fleet itself. According to Oleg Smirnov, until the end of the 1990s, our country used aircraft exclusively of domestic production - more than 13.5 thousand units. Now most airlines are buying Boeings and Airbuses, moreover, those that have been in operation with foreign carriers for at least 15-20 years. Almost all of them are registered in other countries - in the same Ireland, like the tragically lost A321, or on "islands, the tax system in which is much softer than in Russia."

“We buy planes abroad, we train pilots in the same way, we also import spare parts. We sell tickets in rubles. Accordingly, carriers have to save. Including, on safety measures - repair and maintenance. The transition to reducing the number of air carriers, like the Soviet system, replacing the current private companies with state-owned ones, will not lead to an improvement in the situation. Now in Russia there are about 100 airlines of one level or another. They transport just over 90 million people a year. There are approximately 1,000 air carriers in the United States. And last year, their passenger traffic exceeded 800 million. The leadership of our country needs to develop a new, more advanced program of aerification. It will take many years to do this - after all, over the past 25 years we have lagged behind the rest of the world in this business by half a century,” Oleg Smirnov believes.

HOW ARE THEM?

The foreign market of passenger air transportation is extremely extensive. Thus, in the United States, there are over fifty companies that provide passenger flights both domestically and abroad (excluding airlines that provide small aircraft for short trips). At the same time, there is no advantage in the direction of one company. For example, in 2014, four companies - Delta Air Lines, United States Southwest Airlines, United States United Airlines and United States American Airlines - carried a total of 440,000 passengers. Moreover, the first company accounted for 130 thousand, and the fourth from the list - 88 thousand.

The situation is similar in Europe, for example, in France, where there are more than 20 carriers (however, Air France is unconditionally the leader with 52 thousand passengers), in Germany (about 30 companies, Lufthansa is in the lead with its subsidiaries and 60 thousand. passengers carried in the past year).

The notable exception here is perhaps Spain, where Iberia Airlines, privatized in 2001, took over a number of regional carriers, effectively monopolizing the domestic flight market. In 2010, it was announced that it would merge with British Airwaves, but both companies that formed the International Airlines Group continue to operate under their usual names. However, Vueling Airlines competes very successfully with Iberia within the country.

In China, in turn, there is also a considerable choice of airlines, but the so-called “big three” traditionally stands out: China Southern Airlines, Air China and China Eastern Airlines. The first two last year accounted for a total of almost 120,000 passengers.

A motley crowd of tourists, a vibrant underwater world that attracts divers from all over the world - all this attracts travelers. The Russians were eager to go there, as if they were going to a second dacha: at least a week to rest from work and fry in the sun. Whole families flew until the plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 forced the whole country to shudder.

Tragic incident

Tourist group of the company "Briscoe" was returning charter flight from Sharm El Sheikh to Saint Petersburg. Despite the early morning (departure at 5.50 local time), the passengers were in a great mood. They posted pictures of a successful holiday on social networks. It was Saturday, and on Monday, many had to plunge into someone waiting for work, someone - study.

Airliner Airbus A321-231 EI-ETJ, which arrived from Samara, took on board 217 passengers. By 12 noon, they and the seven crew members were to be in the northern capital, where many were expected at the airport by relatives and friends. Having gained a predetermined altitude of 9400 meters in 23 minutes, at a speed of 520 km / h, the aircraft suddenly disappeared from the radar. At 6:15 a.m. (7:15 a.m. Moscow time), the plane crashed near the Sinai Peninsula near El Arish Airport, the hottest point in Egypt, where al-Qaeda Islamists opposed government forces.

Versions of the tragedy

Those meeting flight 9268 at Pulkovo Airport were anxiously watching the board, which displayed the information: "Arrival delayed." And by evening, the whole country already knew that the wreckage of the aircraft that had disappeared from the radar had been discovered by the Egyptian authorities. Scattered over a distance of 13 kilometers, with a detached tail, they were shown on television, which caused many versions of experts about the possible causes of the disaster. Three were considered the most reliable:

• Technical problems associated with either engine failure or metal fatigue. In the tail section, traces of plating repair were found after an aircraft touched the asphalt when landing at Cairo airport in 2001. The resulting microcrack could cause the destruction of the aircraft with a climb.
• The plane crash in Egypt is the crew's mistakes.
• Terrorist act.

At the site of the tragedy, an IAC commission headed by Egyptian representative Ayman al-Mukkadam began to work. It included representatives of Russia, France, Germany, the USA and Ireland. After studying the evidence and deciphering, the first two versions were declared invalid.

Aircraft

The A321 crash over the Sinai Peninsula was the largest in the history of Egypt and modern Russia. The airbus belonged to the Kogalymavia company, which was subjected to a thorough check. It was found that after the accident in 2001, the repair of the aircraft was carried out in France at the manufacturing plant, after which all the necessary tests were carried out. For 18 years of operation, the liner flew less than 50% of its resource (57428 hours) and was in good condition. This is evidenced by weekly technical checks, the last of which was carried out on 10/26/2015. The flight recorders did not detect a malfunction in the systems. Until the 23rd minute, the flight went quite normally.

Crew

The forty-eight-year-old crew commander Valery Nemov is a graduate of the SVAAULSh (Stavropol Military School). He is one of the few who in the difficult 90s retrained to fly Airbuses since 2008, having 12,000 flight hours, which testifies to his colossal experience. The co-pilot also came from military aviation, being a veteran of the Chechen campaign. After retiring, Sergei Trukhachev retrained on the A321, having been trained in the Czech Republic. I flew them for over 2 years. The total flight time was 6 thousand hours. Both pilots were in good standing with their airline. Nemov was even prematurely called back from vacation to be sent on the infamous Flight 9268.

Official version

Two weeks after the tragedy, the version of the terrorist attack was officially voiced by the head of the FSB during a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation. In support of his words, he cited the following evidence:

1. American satellites recorded a thermal flash over Sinai during the crash, which indicates an explosion on board the aircraft.
2. A fragment of the fuselage has a hole with a diameter of about one meter. Its edges are curved outward. This indicates that the source of the explosion was inside.
3. When deciphering the recorder, fixing the negotiations, before interrupting the recording, extraneous noise is heard, the nature of which can be attributed to a blast wave.
4. The plane crash in Egypt caused a great public outcry. After a while, they not only recognized responsibility for the terrorist attack, but also posted a photo of an improvised explosive device (IED) on the pages of Dabig magazine.
5. Some of the victims were found to have injuries indicating death from the consequences of the explosion (burns, tissue ruptures).
6. In fragments of fragments, luggage and on the body of the victims, traces of explosives were found - molecules of TNT.

The power of the explosion was estimated at 1 kilogram. The alleged location of the IED is the tail section of the aircraft. For the blast wave moved forward, but the fracture of the fuselage prevented its further advancement.

Plane crash in Egypt: who is to blame?

After the appearance of the Russian version, it became known that 17 employees were detained at the Egyptian airport. The main question was one: "How did the IEDs get on board the liner?" The FSB began to study the biographies of 34 passengers (11 men and 23 women) who had TNT molecules on their bodies. But official Egypt soon declared that there was no evidence for an unequivocal assertion of a terrorist attack on board the aircraft. None of the employees were actually arrested. The Russian authorities have announced a $50 million reward for any information about the terrorists.

Only in February 2016 did the President of Egypt officially acknowledge the attack. It was found that the bomb was made from plastite used to create live ammunition. It is powered by clockwork. The plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 showed that the security system at the airport does not meet international standards. The IED could have gotten on board with the food company through employees with access to the runway, as well as through hand luggage during baggage check. The latest data is that it was in the cabin in the immediate vicinity of place 31A. All these facts led to the ban on the sale of holiday tours in Egypt.

Flight passengers

EI-ETJ - the last digits of the Airbus number. According to them, the aviators called the board among themselves "Juliet", affectionately - "Julia". On that tragic morning, she broke three aviation marriages and killed a young steward who replaced a colleague who quit due to a bad dream. She also claimed the lives of 217 passengers, 25 of whom were children. Those killed in a plane crash in Egypt are entire families, dozens of ruined love stories, babies who are never destined to become adults. Ten-month-old Darina Gromova flew on this flight with her parents. Her mother posted a photo of her on a social network before the flight. Girl standing at the airport facing runway, and below the signature: Main Passenger". This picture has become a symbol of a tragic flight from which no one managed to return.

Almost all passengers are Russians, 4 people are citizens of Ukraine, 1 - Belarus. The majority are residents of St. Petersburg, although there are also representatives of other regions: Pskov, Novgorod, Ulyanovsk. Those killed in a plane crash in Egypt are people of various professions. Even while relatives were engaged in the identification of bodies, caring people formed a collective portrait of passengers, bit by bit collecting information about them. A wonderful gallery was created, where there were many good words about each.

Almost a year later

On July 31, Moscow and St. Petersburg held a rally in memory of those killed over Sinai. Nine months have passed: many relatives received compensation, identified and buried their loved ones, but the pain did not subside. On August 5, 2016, it was reported that forty-five militants led by Abu Dua al-Ansari, who was responsible for the plane crash in Egypt, were killed during a military operation near El Arish. I really want to believe that this will never happen again!

The horrific A321 crash over the Sinai Peninsula, which occurred in the fall of 2015, still excites the world community. A terrible tragedy befell an air transport carrying 224 passengers belonging to an airline called Kogalymavia.

The cause of the plane crash, which took the lives of everyone on board, according to one version, was marked as a terrorist attack. Let's try to remember how the investigation took place, as well as what facts the experts managed to confirm.

Air transport belonging to the Kogalymavia airline, flying to St. Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh, suffered a terrible crash, having been in the air for only 20 minutes. The Kogalymavia disaster occurred near the Sinai Peninsula. Most of the passengers were citizens of the Russian Federation.

Deviations from the normal movement became noticeable even at an altitude of 9411 meters. At that time, the liner kept a speed of 755 km / h. The plane crashed to the ground at 6:14 local time from a height of 8512 meters at a speed of 115 km/h. As a result of the impact, the aircraft was completely destroyed.

The remains of the airliner and the bodies of the people on board were found in the center of the peninsula between El Kanthala and El Laxima. The crash occurred 50 km from the city of Nekhel.

The wreckage was scattered over an area of ​​about 30 km.

Also on board the air transport were three citizens of Ukraine and one Belarusian. As previously noted, no one managed to survive the terrible tragedy, so the plane crash over Sinai was noted as the largest one that takes place in Russian and Soviet aviation.

As soon as it became known about the tragedy, the Russian investigative committee immediately opened 2 criminal cases on the fact of the tragedy. Representatives of the investigative committee, conducting an initial investigation, noted 2 versions that could cause the crash of the airbus:

• technical malfunction of the liner;
• wrong actions taken by the crew.

Cause of the tragedy

Responsibility for the tragic incident was almost immediately claimed by militants belonging to the terrorist organization of the Islamic State. However, this reason was considered by both representatives of Rosaviatsia and the Ministry of Transport of Russia as unreliable.

The President of Russia made a comment on the crash after 55 hours, bringing sincere condolences to the families of the victims and noting that the investigation of the crash would continue in full. The involvement of a terrorist organization was noted in the statement of Alexander Bortnikov, who served as head of the FSB.

Bortnikov noted that, quite possibly, the cause of the crash was the explosion of a bomb that the terrorists quietly carried on board. Soon, one of the representatives of the Russian Ministry came up with a new version regarding the organization of the terrorist attack. The report noted that the militants could have detonated the bomb on board because of revenge on the Russian side, which was actively involved in the fight against terrorist organizations.

About a month after the crash, ISIS representatives published photographs of the bomb used to blow up the airbus in one of the circulation publications. The militants independently created a subversive mechanism from a tin can, equipping it with a metal cylinder and a remote control.

Egyptian military units were able to detain one of the ISIS leaders in the summer of 2016. Around the same time, another militant leader in Syria was eliminated. And the head of the terrorist group Al-Adnani, according to representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, was eliminated during an airstrike.

It is worth noting that the Pentagon completely denies the involvement of the Russian side in the elimination of the terrorist commander.

Investigative findings

The plane crash over Sinai alarmed the entire world community, so representatives of many countries took part in the investigation of the causes of the crash:

• Russian Federation;
• Egypt;
• France;
• Ireland;
• Germany.

According to the rules of the investigation, approved by the International Civil Aviation Association, the lead in this matter was to be the Egyptian side. The version about the involvement of terrorists in the crash was recognized by the current president of Egypt only at the beginning of 2016. A full report on the investigation was published by representatives of the Ministry 2 months after the speech of the President of Egypt.

The report noted that during the investigation it was even possible to mark the place where the explosive device was planted. To clarify this issue, the expert commission had to analyze all the collected fragments of the destroyed airbus. The fragments were analyzed in a special spare hangar on the territory of the Cairo air complex.

At the end of the study, experts were able to confirm that the bomb was planted by militants in the tail of the airbus, more precisely, in the compartment used to transport oversized cargo. As soon as the terrorists activated the explosive device, a powerful explosion tore off the tail section of the aircraft, which caused an uncontrolled dive.

According to data published in a Reuters source, several people were detained who were suspected of involvement in the tragedy. In particular, we are talking about 2 police officers, a mechanic and a luggage compartment loader. The agency also added that the brother of the mechanic suspected of the terrorist attack arrived in Syria about 12 months before the tragedy to join the terrorist group.

Interesting information about the ill-fated flight

Airbus A321-231, which crashed, was number 663. It left the factory in 1997, and in the same period went on its first flight. First, the airliner received a temporary DAVZK number.

After successful tests, the aircraft was purchased by the International Leasing Finance Corporation (ILFC). The airline MEA received it on lease. The liner had 149 passenger seats, of which 31 were in business class and 118 in economy class. The aircraft was operated for 6 years before being transferred back to ILFC.

It is interesting that during this time the airliner became direct participant one of the incidents that also occurred in Egypt. On November 16, 2001, a dangerous landing was made in the city of Cairo. Due to the fault of the pilots, the plane raised its nose so high that the tail section hit the runway hard.
There were no casualties as a result of the incident. None of the passengers of the flight (81 people) and 7 crew members needed medical assistance. Shortly after the forced repair, the ship returned to service again to carry out passenger flights.

Further history of the crashed plane

In 2003, the same airliner under the number TC-OAE was leased to the carrier Onur Air (Turkey). Moreover, not only the on-board combination was subjected to changes, but also the interior. In the service of Onur Air, the aircraft began to accommodate 220 economy class seats; business lounge, it was decided to remove.

Until 2012, the aircraft operated directly from Onur Air, the Saudi Arabian Airlines and the Syrian carrier Cham Wings Airlines (the latter used the aircraft under a sublease agreement with Onur Air). In the spring of 2012, the ship returned to ILFC for the last time.

The vessel passed to the carrier Kogalymavia on March 30. The aircraft number has been changed to EI-ETJ. The Russian carrier, like previous partners of ILFC, also entered into a leasing agreement. Exactly one month later, the aircraft was completely bought out by the Dutch company AerCap and re-delivered to Kogalymavia, which at that time already bore the name Metrojet.

Despite such a long history of operation by various carriers, the aircraft was fully maintained in good condition. The liner was equipped with two powerful V2533-A5 engines developed by International Aero Engines. The last operating company of Metrojet (Kogalymavia) provided evidence that the frequency and quality of all technical checks were strictly observed.

According to the documentation, the last technical inspection before the disaster took place on October 26, 2015. Scheduled maintenance was performed as scheduled and is dated March 18, 2014. The ship's safety level corresponded to a coefficient of 0.67 (maximum 2).

For all 18.5 years of active operation, the aircraft made 21,590 takeoff and landing cycles. The total flight time was 57,413 hours and 11 minutes. Which corresponds to 48% of the total resource.

Who was on the plane

There were 224 people on board. a. Among the dead were a total of 218 citizens of Russia, 4 of Ukraine and 2 of Belarus.

The aircraft was flown by two pilots:

• Aircraft commander V.Yu. Nemov (48 years old). Number of hours in flight: more than 12,000.
• Co-pilot S.S. Trukhachev (45 years old). Flight experience: 5 641 hours.

Five flight attendants worked with the passengers of the flight. Rosaviatsia provided data, according to which 192 adults and 25 children were on board. The oldest passenger was 77 years old, and the youngest was only 10 months old at the time of the tragedy.

How did the authorities of the countries react to the tragedy?

Condolences were publicly expressed by the heads of a large number of countries:

• Germany;
• Egypt;
• Bulgaria;
• Latvia;
• Lithuania;
• the Netherlands;
• Ukraine, etc.

Even Pope Francis was among the officials. There was simply no one indifferent to this tragedy and the victims in the world, despite the ambiguous political and economic relations.

However, one incident did occur. Although France officially expressed condolences and support, the infamous Charlie Hebdo magazine immediately published 3 cartoons based on the plane crash. The Russian government and the public were outraged. Official Paris spoke out in support of journalists, saying that the magazine has the right to "express its own opinion about everything without restrictions," even if it contradicts the position of the government.

In contact with