On the last day of October 1915, a plane crash occurred over the central part of the Sinai Peninsula, killing two hundred and twenty-four people, most of whom were Russian citizens. In the entire history of aviation, this was the case of the most mass death of our compatriots on board an airplane. The catastrophe over Sinai, whose photo flew around the world, was in the center of attention of the world community, and various assumptions were made about its causes.
The events of that fateful morning
But before talking about the versions of what happened, which were filled with numerous reports from the scene in those days, we will try to restore the chronology of what happened. It is known that on October 31, the plane of the Russian airline Kogalymavia Airbus A A321-231 made a flight from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, located at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, to St. Petersburg.
The plane carried out a charter, that is, an irregular flight. It was chartered by the travel company Brisco, and on board were its customers returning after a vacation on the Red Sea. Having come off the runway at 6 hours 52 minutes and heading for the Northern capital of Russia, after twenty-three minutes of flight, he suddenly disappeared from the radar screens. It should be noted that before this there were no reports of emergency situations on board, and the disaster over Sinai was a surprise to everyone.
An urgently organized search group found fragments of a crashed liner scattered over fifteen kilometers in the central part of the peninsula near the city of Nehel. Rescuers were forced to state that none of the passengers and crew members escaped. Among the dead were seven children. Immediately after the Sinai disaster, a statement was made by the ISIS terrorist organization banned in our country that it was taking responsibility for what had happened.
Airbus A321-231
That’s probably all. Now let's see what was the liner that died in the sky over Egypt. Despite the fact that it was released in 1997 and managed to spend nineteen years in the sky, it was, by the standards of modern aviation, a still old airplane that exhausted only forty-eight percent of its flying resource. Experts consider this age to be quite acceptable. Thousands of his peers fly around the world today. Therefore, the assumption that the catastrophe over the Sinai occurred as a result of the deterioration of the liner hardly has any basis.
Journalists who commented on the event drew attention to the fact that over the years of its life, the aircraft has repeatedly changed owners and leased. However, this does not give cause for concern. A similar practice has long been established in the field of air transportation and is accepted throughout the world.
Before the years of operation of the liner, there were no serious accidents with it, with the exception of the only case that occurred in November 2001. Then, completing a flight from Beirut to Cairo, and making a landing in the Egyptian capital, the plane found itself in an emergency situation - as a result of a pilot’s mistake, his nose was excessively lifted, his tail hit the concrete of the landing strip.
None of the passengers and crew were injured, and the damage sustained by the aircraft was repaired. Soon, its operation was resumed, and after fourteen years of trouble-free operation, it is difficult to assume that the catastrophe in the sky over Sinai has any connection with that incident.
Air crew
Often the causes of the tragedies that erupted in the air are the human factor, that is, the wrong actions of the pilots caused by their incompetence or criminal negligence. Therefore, during the investigation this option was also taken into account. However, the crew failed to present any complaints.
In addition, the aircraft was piloted by experienced pilots that day. The ship's commander V. Yu. Nemov and co-pilot S. S. Trukhachev flown a sufficient number of hours during their life, including on aircraft of this type. In addition to the pilots, the crew also included five cabin crew.
The first assumptions about the causes of what happened
Investigation of the disaster over the Sinai was carried out by representatives of six states: Egypt, Russia, France, the USA, Germany and Ireland. The most qualified and experienced specialists of these countries took part in its work. The very next day, the decryption of the data contained in the flight recorders found at the scene of the accident and received only minor damage was started.
The wreckage of the aircraft, scattered over a stretch of more than fifteen kilometers, testified to the fact that the destruction of the liner occurred in the air. This, in turn, led to the thought of what happened on board the explosion. However, at the beginning of the investigation, the version of the attack was not yet dominant. As a result of purely technical malfunctions, for example, a fuel tank or lithium batteries could explode. Similar cases have occurred in flight practice.
Terrorist attack version
A week later, the first results of the decoding of the recorders became known. According to the data provided by the chairman of the international investigative commission Ayman al-Mukadd, in the last seconds of the recording, a sharp extraneous sound was clearly heard, the origin of which should have been established by a special analysis.
Specifically, the causes of the Sinai disaster became known on November 16 from a message from the representative of the Russian side Alexander Bortnikov. He said that as a result of the examination, traces of non-Russian-made explosives were found on the wreckage of the aircraft and on the belongings of passengers.
They irrefutably indicate that an improvised explosive device was launched on board , the power of which amounted to approximately one kilogram of TNT. After this report, the version of the attack was fully substantiated.
The next day, an appeal by the FSB of the Russian Federation to the world community and Russian citizens was published containing a call for assistance in establishing the identities of terrorists. As a reward for information conducive to their capture, it indicated the amount of fifty million US dollars.
Government Position in Egypt
This version of what happened did not suit the Egyptian government, since it caused serious damage to the country's tourism business. Indeed, almost all of the largest airlines in the world in those days suspended flights over Sinai until the final clarification of the circumstances of what happened.
Stating that it would take into account the report of Russian experts, the commission of inquiry created by the Egyptian authorities in December 2015, nevertheless announced that, having conducted a comprehensive study of the circumstances of the case, it could not find confirmation of the penetration of unauthorized persons on board the aircraft, as well as evidence of the terrorist attack.
Opinion of outside observers and experts
This was all the more strange because, according to the US military, their reconnaissance satellite recorded a thermal flash in the air at the time of the crash of the airbus. In this case, observation data exclude missiles from entering the aircraft, since in this case its thermal footprint would have been recorded. The crash as a result of emergency landing is excluded by the fact that the outbreak was seen in the air, and not on the ground.
Analysts from Stratfor, a private American company specializing in technical expertise, adhere to the same version. They also recognized the most likely cause of the explosion on board, although they did not give a final conclusion on its cause.
In November, reports appeared on the press that specialists were able to divide the traces of injuries sustained by the victims of the Sinai disaster into two groups - those caused by the fall and those that bear obvious signs of an explosion. It was very important. As a result, after identifying the remains of passengers and taking into account which of them was in what place, according to the tickets purchased, it was possible to establish with a fairly high degree of certainty the place where the explosive device was laid.
But even after that, the question of what happened as a result of the Sinai disaster, the photo of the victims of which shocked the world community, remains open. As mentioned above, the Egyptian government was the main opponent of the attack. It was extremely unprofitable for him to admit the truth about why the catastrophe over Sinai occurred. The version, which was forbidden by the Egyptian authorities and was practically not covered in the local media, nevertheless received a number of indirect confirmations. Here is just one example.
What were the Egyptian media silent about
According to a number of foreign news agencies, it is known that immediately after the incident at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport, the Egyptian authorities carried out a series of detentions of persons suspected of involvement in the disaster. A total of seventeen people were detained. In addition, two more employees were put on the wanted list, who were responsible for scanning luggage of passengers and disappeared without a trace after the accident. This information came from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and was not classified at first.
However, after some time, senior government officials issued a categorical refutation of it, claiming that they had no and no reason to see the reason for the incident in the attack. They persistently continue to say that the disaster over Sinai was the result of a technical malfunction of the aircraft, and therefore, was caused by the fault of the airline.
Their position can be explained only by the fact that, in the event of recognition of the negligence of airport employees or their direct conspiracy with criminals, as a result of which explosives were carried on board the plane, the blame for what happened would fall on the state. It is clear that such an outcome is fraught with the payment of compensation to the families of the deceased and the affected airline, as well as the loss of the flow of tourists to the country's resorts and many other negative consequences.
The reaction of the governments of several leading states
Nevertheless, the catastrophe over Sinai, whose photo did not go off the television screens of the whole world in those days, had extremely negative consequences for the Egyptian economy. Already on November 4, the governments of Great Britain and Ireland prohibited their airlines from flying over Sinai and flying to Sharm El Sheikh from any destination.
The next day, representatives of the US and German aviation authorities took a similar initiative. The governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and France did not introduce bans, but through the media warned their citizens about the undesirability of flying to Egyptian resorts due to possible terrorist attacks, one of which resulted in the Sinai disaster. Photos of the victims eloquent all words convinced the validity of such warnings, and the flow of tourists on the Red Sea coast was reduced to a minimum.
Suspension of flights from Russia to Egypt
A corresponding reaction followed from the Russian side. It was she who suffered the severity of the losses, since the victims of the disaster over Sinai, with the exception of five people, were its citizens. In addition to the Russians, there were four citizens of Ukraine and one citizen of Belarus on board. Basically, passengers were residents of St. Petersburg, as well as the Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod regions.
In view of the incident, on November 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the suspension of air traffic with Egypt until the establishment of the proper level of flight safety. That same evening, this order entered into force. The only exceptions were flights organized for the export of Russian tourists who had finished their vacation. But even in this case, increased anti-terrorism measures were taken. Only hand luggage could be taken on board, and all other baggage was delivered separately by the Ministry of Emergencies.
President's task
In addition to the suspension of flights, a number of extraordinary actions were taken, the cause of which was the disaster over Sinai. The death toll was so great that what happened immediately caused a resonance in the widest sections of society. In response to the indignation of the Russians by the actions of the terrorists, the Russian president, speaking at a meeting on the results of the investigation, set the task of the relevant services to find those responsible for the atrocity committed.
Following this, Russian Minister of Defense S. Shoigu, during negotiations with the President of Egypt, summing up the investigation, said that the Russian side has data that the catastrophe over Sinai was organized by the Vilayat Sinai terrorist group, which is part of the banned ISIL organization in our country.
Memory of the dead
As a sign of popular grief for the victims of the terrorist attack, which became one of the largest in recent years, mourning was declared on November 1. In St. Petersburg itself, where most of the victims lived, it lasted three days. In addition, the city governor G. Poltavchenko took the initiative to create a memorial in memory of those whose lives were claimed by the disaster over Sinai.
“Keep the memory of what happened - you will be able to avoid similar things in the future” - this time-tested truth should also serve in the fight against one of the main problems of the 21st century - terrorism. No wonder the presidential spokesman D. Peskov, speaking at a meeting with journalists organized in March, emphasized that the order to search for criminals given by V.V. Putin to the Minister of Defense is unlimited, and their crime will never be forgotten.