Sinai plane crash: No survivors on Russian airliner KGL9268

BBC News ^ | 31 October 2015

[Lorianne]

A Russian airliner has crashed in central Sinai killing all 224 people on board, Egyptian officials have said.

The Airbus A-321 had just left the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg.

Wreckage was found in the Hasana area and bodies removed, along with the plane's "black box". An official described a "tragic scene" with bodies of victims still strapped to seats.

Egypt's prime minister said no "irregular" activities were to blame.

Sinai has an active militant network, and on Saturday afternoon, jihadis allied to the so-called Islamic State made a claim on social media that they brought down flight KGL9268.

But Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov told Interfax news agency that "such reports cannot be considered true". No evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, he said.

[JPG]

That's the Fedex plane that crashed in Japan in 2011.

Right. I stand corrected.

[xkaydet65]

I agree re. MANPAD. I believe the flight was a return charter by a group of vacationing Russians. If so then on board sabotage or action seems unlikely. Unless some Slavic jihadi took a last round of golf at Sharma El Sheik or a last swim in the Red Sea. And I doubt ISIS came up with a flyable Mig, armed with AIMs and a pilot to fly it into guarded airspace like the Sinai.

[SunkenCiv]

• Russian airliner Flight KGL9268 crashes in central Sinai
• Russian airliner missing over Sinai
• Egypt: Russian plane crashes with over 200 passengers in Isis stronghold in Sinai
• Russian Airliner With 224 People Aboard Believed Shot Down By Missile Over Central Sinai
• You Tube video from ISIS with picture of downed flight 7K9268 (?)
• Islamic State claims responsibility for Russian plane crash in Egypt
• Russian plane crash: Isis responsibility claim rejected -- latest updates
• Zero Hedge shows plane shot down.
• Air France, Lufthansa stop Sinai overflights after Russia crash

[Black Agnes]

That plane looks totally different than the one that crashed.

I suspect that might be a Russian ‘National Enquirer’ type site.

[Karl Spooner]

You’re right. Good work. I don’t see how or why that newspaper I linked posted that photo!

[John Valentine]

Good question. That photograph is very clearly of a different aircraft.

[TXnMA]

This is very preliminary, but a not-unlikely explanation is a small on-board explosive device in an aft lavatory or closet.

~~~~~~~

Notice (at right in this photo you posted)

the Airbus logo -- which is painted right before "A-321" in the photo of the intact aircraft (a/c) about halfway between the aft door and the aft-most window. (The fore-aft direction of the printing is reversed on the right side -- with the logo farthest aft.)

In this Russian A-321 internal layout,

That logo would be in the vicinity of what appears to be a closet or lavatory space. (The galley is on the left side opposite it...)

In your photo, a semicircular section of the fuselage above that area is missing, and the remaining, lower sidewall is bulged outward.

That section of the a/c apparently separated from the remainder at altitude. It hit the ground with minimal lateral motion -- and what there was, was rearward. (IOW, the aft section of the a/c was traveling slightly backward when it hit the ground. (Indication that it separated at altitude and "fluttered" down in a flat spin...)

If my analysis is correct, that section of the ac landed at a significant distance from the remainder of the fuselage.

~~~~~~~~

This is certainly no "take it to the bank" analysis but, based on this very fragmentary and sketchy evidence, all of this adds up to an initial suspicion of a small explosive device stowed in an aft luggage or lavatory space.

~~~~~~~~

If there is any "good" news from an incident like this, the "good news" is that the flight recorders are in that aft section of the a/c, and should be in excellent shape.

...just my $.02...

[Ready4Freddy]

“If there is any “good” news from an incident like this, the “good news” is that the flight recorders are in that aft section of the a/c, and should be in excellent shape. “

That, and the fact that there were apparently 3 empty seats...

[TXnMA]

Whoa! I just noticed this photo of the aft section of the a/c -- shot from the opposite side:

If anything, it reinforces my suspicion of an internal explosion in the aft galley/lavatory area...

Notice the left-side "A-321" I mentioned in my #47 (The Airbus logo is gone on this side...)

I don't see much, if any charring or "sooting", but the apparent hemispherical displacement of materials certainly suggests an internal explosion.

If this part of the a/c is separated spatially -- by a significant distance from the remainder of the a/c -- and if this portion is closer to the takeoff point, then I'd say the "aft-located bomb" scenario is a fairly safe bet...

[TXnMA]

Karl, I really didn't intend to "jump on" you; but that image was certainly making the task of initial analysis confusing!!

You might find my "first-pass analysis" in #47 & #49 to be of interest...

[sport]

It was probably a small bomb courtesy of ISIS.

[Karl Spooner]

I just took that foreign newspaper at good faith, that’s all. Glad to see people on their toes.

[TXnMA]

I'd appreciate it if you folks would take a look at my #47 and #49 -- and let me know if anything in this mess we've seen so far (or anything you see in my two posts) makes you think I'm out of line on this "first-pass guess"...

Thanks, FRiends!

TXnMA

[rollo tomasi]

If foul play found, round up the maintenance crew and the

[Moose4]

That isn’t even the right airplane. That’s a FedEx aircraft, I think an MD-11. They’ve had at least two MD-11s crash on landing inverted like that, one at Newark several years back and one at Tokyo Narita more recently.

}:-)4

[Karl Spooner]

It’s been solved.

[Moose4]

It’s hard to tell visually. You’ve got hundreds of mph of wind acting on the airframe in odd ways, not to mention the ground impact falling from six miles up.

Although I think you’re on the right track. One thing that crash investigators do first is look for the “four corners” of the airplane—the nose, the tail, and both wingtips. If the tail section of the airplane is at the other end of the 5 km debris field from the nose, that’s a sure sign of an in-flight breakup and makes a bomb that much more likely.

}:-)4

[PA Engineer]

I agree with you.

My first thought based on the debris field was an internal explosion then break up during descent.

Based on the plane track and emergency call, I don't believe it broke up initially. Sadly, I think it broke up during the emergency decent and the passengers were aware of what was going on.

I agree with the BBC interview (scroll down): Mikael Robertsson from flight tracking service Flight Radar 24: ''This was something more than a planned diversion''

[MarMema]

+memory eternal+ to those who died.

[Longbow1969]

It was probably a small bomb courtesy of ISIS.

Possible, but people really need to stop jumping to conclusions, posting pictures of the wrong plane wreckage, etc. The ISIS video that is out there is almost certainly not actual footage of this plane crash. If they put a bomb on the plane, why post a silly fake video? It is just as, if not more, likely that this plane experienced some catastrophic failure and went down.