Planes that crashed this year. Latest photos of passengers killed in plane crash in Egypt

On October 31, the Airbus-321 airliner of the Kogalymavia airline, which operated flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, took off from Egypt at 6.21 (Moscow time) and 23 minutes later. There were 217 passengers and seven crew members on board. Wreckage of a Russian civil aircraft found in the center Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

On August 16, in the Indonesian province of Papua, an ATR of Trigana Air Service, flying from the provincial capital of Jayapura to Oxybil Airport, collided with a mountain. There were 49 passengers and five crew members on board the plane. They all died.

On June 30, a four-engine Hercules C-130B military transport aircraft, manufactured more than half a century ago by the American airline Lockheed, in the southwestern part of the capital of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, about two minutes after takeoff from Medan's Soewondo Air Force Base, having flown just about five kilometers. Just before the crash, the pilot reported engine problems to air traffic controllers and the C-130 crashed as it was turning around to return to base. There were 122 people on board the crashed plane, they died. Another 19 people died on the ground.

On March 24, in the south of France, in the Alpes-Haute-Provence department, an Airbus A320 aircraft owned by Germanwings was flying from Barcelona (Spain) to Dusseldorf (Germany). There were 142 passengers and eight crew members on board the airliner. They all died. Recordings from the discovered black boxes indicate that the crash was caused by the co-pilot, German citizen Andreas Lubitz.

On February 4 in Taiwan, an ATR 72 aircraft took off from Taipei Songshan Airport in the direction of the Kinmen Archipelago, Keelung. There were 53 passengers and five crew members on board. Among the passengers were two children. As a result of the incident, 43 people were killed and 15 were injured. In addition, debris from the plane hit a taxi car, injuring two more people. According to management civil aviation Taiwan, a few minutes before the crash, the plane's pilot gave distress signals to dispatchers, indicating problems with the engine.

On January 26 in Spain, a Greek Air Force aircraft participating in NATO's Tactical Leadership Program was unable to gain altitude at takeoff and in an area where other aircraft were located. He rammed several of them. As a result of the disaster, 11 people were killed and another 20 were injured.

On January 18, in Syria, an army cargo plane near the Abu al-Zuhur airport in Idlib province due to bad weather. At least 35 military personnel were killed.

2014

On December 28, an AirAsia Indonesia plane was flying from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, in the province of Banka Belitung. There were 162 people on board (the vast majority were Indonesian citizens), all of them died. Indonesian authorities reported the discovery of aircraft debris and bodies of victims in the sea off the coast of Borneo.

On August 10, in Iran, not far from Tehran Mehrabad airport, a small passenger plane of the Iranian modification An-140 of Taban Airlines was flying from Tehran to the Iranian city of Tabas. There were 40 passengers and eight crew members on board. The plane crashed immediately after takeoff from the airport near the highway. During takeoff, the car's engine caught fire, the plane abruptly changed direction and, even before hitting the ground, fell apart. Human.

On July 24, McDonnell 83 was en route from the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, to Algiers. The flight was operated by Air Algerie, which leased the aircraft from the Spanish Swiftair. 116 people died. Among the possible causes of the disaster are a terrorist attack and weather— it is known that the plane deviated from its original route due to an approaching thunderstorm.

On July 23, an ATR-72 passenger turboprop aircraft operated by TransAsia Airways in Taiwan. The plane unsuccessfully tried to land at the airport in the city of Magong in the Penghu archipelago. The pilots requested a second landing attempt, after which the aircraft lost contact with air traffic controllers. The plane crashed into the ground in the area settlement Hussy. In doing so, he damaged two houses that caught fire. There were 54 passengers and four crew members on board the plane. , 10 injured.

July 17 in the Donetsk region of Ukraine Amsterdam - Kuala Lumpur. There were 298 people on board the liner, all of them died. Kyiv blamed the militia for the crash, but they said they did not have the means to shoot down an aircraft at such an altitude. All major world politicians are calling for a thorough investigation of the tragedy.

On the night of March 8, the airline's Boeing 777-200 Malaysia Airlines with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board, flying from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing (China),

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

Tragic accident

A tourist group from the Brisco company was returning on a charter flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. Despite the early morning (departure at 5.50 local time), the passengers were in excellent spirits. They posted pictures of their successful vacation on social networks. It was Saturday, and on Monday many had to plunge into work; some had work, others had to study.

The Airbus A321-231 EI-ETJ airliner, which arrived from Samara, took 217 passengers on board. They and seven crew members were to be in Northern capital, where many relatives and friends were waiting at the airport. Having reached a given altitude of 9400 meters in 23 minutes, at a speed of 520 km/h the aircraft suddenly disappeared from the radar. At 6.15 (7.15 Moscow) the plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula near El-Arish airport - the hottest spot in Egypt, where government troops were confronted by Al-Qaeda Islamists.

Versions of the tragedy

Those meeting flight 9268 at Pulkovo Airport anxiously watched the board, which displayed the information: “Arrival delayed.” And by evening, the whole country knew that the wreckage of the aircraft that had disappeared from radar had been discovered by the Egyptian authorities. Scattered over a length of 13 kilometers, with the tail section torn off, they were shown on television, which gave rise to many versions of experts about the possible causes of the disaster. Three were considered the most reliable:

• Technical problems associated either with engine failure or metal fatigue. In the tail section, traces of skin repairs were found after the aircraft touched the asphalt with its tail while landing at Cairo airport in 2001. The resulting microcrack could cause the destruction of the aircraft as it climbed.
• The plane crash in Egypt was caused by the crew's mistakes.
• Terrorist act.

The IAC commission, headed by Egyptian representative Ayman al-Mukkadam, began working at the site of the tragedy. It included representatives of Russia, France, Germany, the USA and Ireland. After studying the evidence and decoding, the first two versions were found unfounded.

Aircraft

The A321 crash over the Sinai Peninsula was the worst in Egyptian history and modern Russia. The airbus belonged to the Kogalymavia company, which underwent a thorough inspection. It was found that after the 2001 emergency, the aircraft was repaired in France at the manufacturer's plant, after which all the necessary tests were carried out. Over 18 years of operation, the airliner flew less than 50% of its service life (57,428 hours) and was in good condition. This is evidenced by weekly technical checks, the last of which was carried out on October 26, 2015. The flight recorders did not detect any system malfunction. Until the 23rd minute, the flight proceeded quite normally.

Crew

Forty-eight-year-old crew commander Valery Nemov is a graduate of SVAAULSH (Stavropol Military School). He is one of the few who, in the difficult 90s, retrained to fly on Airbuses since 2008, having 12 thousand flight hours, which testifies to his enormous 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 undergone training in the Czech Republic. I flew them for more than 2 years. The total flight time was 6 thousand hours. Both pilots were in good standing with their airline. Nemov was even called back from vacation prematurely 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. To support his words, he provided the following evidence:

1. American satellites recorded a thermal flash over Sinai during the disaster, which indicates an explosion occurred on board the plane.
2. The fuselage fragment 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 decoding the recorder recording the negotiations, before the recording is interrupted, extraneous noise is heard, the nature of which can be attributed to a blast wave.
4. The plane crash in Egypt caused great public outcry. After a while, they not only admitted 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 had injuries indicating death from the consequences of the explosion (burns, tissue ruptures).
6. Traces of explosives - TNT molecules - were found in fragments of shrapnel, luggage and on the bodies of the victims.

The power of the explosion was estimated at 1 kilogram. The estimated location of the IED is the tail 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 Russian version appeared, it became known that 17 employees were detained at the Egyptian airport. The main question was one: “How did the IED get on board the airliner?” The FSB began studying the biographies of 34 passengers (11 men and 23 women) who had TNT molecules on their bodies. But official Egypt soon stated that there was no evidence for a clear statement about a terrorist attack on board the plane. None of the employees were actually arrested. Russian authorities have announced a $50 million reward for any information about the terrorists.

Only in February 2016 did the Egyptian President officially acknowledge the terrorist attack. It was discovered that the bomb was made from plasticite, which is used to create military projectiles. It is powered by a clock mechanism. The plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 showed that the airport security system does not meet international standards. The IED could have gotten on board with the company supplying the products through employees with access to the runway, as well as through hand luggage during baggage check. The latest data is such that it was in the cabin in the immediate vicinity of place 31A. All these facts led to a 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 “Juliet” among themselves, affectionately “Dzhulka”. On that tragic morning, she broke up three aviation marriages and killed a young steward who replaced a colleague who had quit due to a bad dream. It also took the lives of 217 passengers, 25 of whom were children. Those killed in a plane crash in Egypt are entire families, dozens of destroyed love stories, babies who will never grow up. Ten-month-old Darina Gromova was on this flight with her parents. Her mother posted her photo on a social network before the flight. A girl stands at the airport facing the runway, and below is the signature: “ Main passenger" This picture has become a symbol tragic flight, from which no one managed to return.

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

Almost a year later

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

As is known on this moment, the aircraft crashed near the city of El-Arish. Shortly before the accident, the aircraft commander requested permission from ground services for an emergency landing in Cairo due to technical problems.

According to the Internet portal Flightradar, the airliner sharply decreased in altitude before disappearing from radar: the plane crashed after descending 1.5 km.

There were 224 people on board the crashed Airbus 321, seven of them crew members. Egyptian rescuers who arrived at the scene reported hearing people groaning under the rubble and said they hoped to find someone who had survived, but it soon became known that no one had survived. Most of The plane's passengers were tourists returning to Russia after a holiday in Egypt.

Among the dead were the deputy head of Pskov, who was returning from vacation with his common-law wife, as well as a participant in the TV show “Top Model in Russian” Elena Domashnyaya from St. Petersburg. 24 children also died.

The vast majority of those on board the ship are Russians, but there are three Ukrainian citizens and one Belarusian citizen.

The bodies of the disaster victims were delivered to Cairo morgues as of Saturday evening. In St. Petersburg, DNA samples were taken from relatives of the victims for identification.

According to the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram, investigators have already found one of the flight recorders of Airbus 321. The “black box” contains all the communication data between the aircraft and the control tower of air traffic controllers, as well as conversations between the aircraft commander and his assistants,” the newspaper noted. It will be deciphered by Russian investigators and aviation experts, who flew to Egypt shortly after the tragedy.

The crash of Airbus 321 was the largest in Russian history, killing 224 people.

Before this, the largest in terms of the number of victims was the crash of a Tu-154 flying from Tashkent to Leningrad on July 10, 1985. Due to an error by the crew, the plane went into a tailspin and crashed near the Uzbek city of Uchkuduk. Then 200 people died.

Why did the plane crash?

On the first day of the disaster, conflicting information was received about the possible causes of the crash. Thus, Egyptian authorities said that the crew of the Airbus 321 complained of engine problems. They also put forward a version of a technical malfunction as one of the main ones. Wherein

Kogalymavia stated that they saw no reason to doubt the technical serviceability of the aircraft.

The Investigative Committee will apparently check all versions. In particular, investigators from the Privolzhsky Investigation Department for Transport in Samara at the site of the last refueling of the crashed plane on Saturday seized fuel samples.

A few hours after the accident (an organization banned in Russia), through its friendly news agency Aamaq, announced that it was taking responsibility for the crash of Airbus 321. Information about this was also posted. At the same time, it is known that local militants do not have weapons capable of hitting a flying target at such a height. Later, the terrorists' statements were categorically denied by Russian officials, including the Russian Minister of Transport. Despite all this,

In addition, the Minister of Labor ordered that the families of the deceased crew members of the crashed Airbus 321 be paid 1 million rubles each.

It is noteworthy that the tragedy did not affect plans for celebrating Halloween in Moscow. Gazeta.Ru called the organizers of the largest Halloween parties planned for that night in Moscow. As it turned out, the clubs do not intend to make adjustments to their plans in connection with the plane crash.
So,

parties will take place at Soho Rooms, Arma17, Ray Just Arena and the Moscow club.

The few city parks that joined the celebration, such as Sokolniki Park, also kept the schedule in place. Previously, an announcement about the event was even posted on the website of the prefecture of the Eastern Administrative District.

“Today everything will go according to the program, and tomorrow, of course, is a day of mourning,” the director of the park told Gazeta.Ru. “We don’t have anything special planned for tomorrow, but we’ll cancel the dances, for example.”

Could savings lead to tragedy?

The crashed Airbus A-321 was 18 years old. However, contrary to popular belief, the age of an aircraft does not affect its flight characteristics. The fact is that every aircraft is required to undergo regular scheduled checks and technical inspections in accordance with the rules of the International Air Transport Association (ICAO). Without the corresponding certificate air authorities and the airport do not allow the board to fly. It is worth noting that, unlike the well-known in Russia method of “quickly doing” maintenance on a car, this option with an airplane is impossible, since

Each technician and technical team inspecting the aircraft bears personal responsibility for their inspection area and puts their signature on its results.

In this case, each member of the engineering and technical staff is responsible only for his own area (for example, the aircraft engine, the condition of the flaps, tail, etc.). Most aircraft flying in Russia undergo maintenance abroad at specialized centers, and some types of maintenance on foreign civil aircraft can only be carried out abroad.

During its life, the aircraft undergoes many technical checks, which actually replace each other: Transit check, Daily check, Weekly check, A-check, B-check, C-check and D-check.

A-check and B-check are a simple (light) inspection, while C- and D-check are a heavy form of maintenance. A D-check occurs approximately once every 12 years (that is, the crashed aircraft has already passed one D-check) and lasts 30-40 days. During it, the entire aircraft, all its components and parts are checked. Units that have reached the end of their service life or have failed testing must be replaced. Essentially, this means that the ITS team almost completely disassembles the aircraft, checking every part, electronics, wiring and assembly for corrosion or rust. If even slight signs of corrosion are detected, the part or part of the frame is replaced with a new one. As experts note, de facto this means that

By 25 years of service, only a few original components and parts remain from all the components of the aircraft that were assembled at the manufacturer.

World experience shows that most airlines are trying to get rid of old aircraft, constantly renewing their aircraft fleet. However, the point here is not about flight safety, but about basic economic benefits. The higher and more complex the level of aircraft technical inspection, the longer it takes and the more expensive it is for the airline. Thus,

Having submitted the aircraft for a 30-40-day D-check, the company will incur serious losses, since the aircraft cannot be operated during the check, and therefore cannot generate income.

However, despite the high safety of flights, any plane crash attracts increased attention from international aviation authorities, as well as from the manufacturers of the crashed aircraft. As a result of an investigation into the cause of a plane crash or incident, international aviation authorities may introduce new air travel safety requirements.

So, for example, after several incidents with navigation failure on an airplane, passengers were prohibited from turning on Cell phones, and aircraft manufacturers were directed to consider improving the insulation of aircraft electronic systems. As a result, this malfunction was eliminated in new aircraft models and some aviation authorities, for example the European Agency aviation security(EASA), has officially canceled the outdated regulation. Similarly, regulations were introduced to keep the window shades open during takeoff and landing: firstly,

Through the windows, passengers can notice an emergency outside the aircraft and inform the crew about it, and secondly, in the event of a hard landing, the window shade may break and there is a risk that sharp fragments of plastic will injure passengers.

The cause of today's tragedy remains to be determined, but we can safely say that there is no correlation between the age of the aircraft and its safety.

Exactly two years ago, on October 31, 2015, the most massive plane crash, throughout the history of Russia. On this day, an Airbus A321-231 airliner Russian airline took off from Egyptian Sharm el-Sheikh and headed for St. Petersburg. The airliner's crew performed chartered flight and drove Russian tourists home after rest.

The plane climbed calmly along the Gulf of Aqaba and would soon cross the Sinai Peninsula to enter European airspace. However, at the 23rd minute of the flight, communication between ground services and the aircraft was interrupted. It soon became clear that the Airbus A321-231 crashed to the ground in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula and was completely destroyed. The wreckage of the aircraft was scattered over 13 km. All 224 people on board the plane were killed.

At the time of the death of the airliner, there were seven crew members and 217 passengers. Of these, four were Ukrainians, one was Belarusian, and the rest were Russian citizens. Among them was the deputy head of Pskov and a deputy of the local legislative assembly. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the oldest passenger was 77 years old, and

the youngest victim of the tragedy was a 10-month-old.

Shortly before the tragic incident, her mother Tatyana published a photo of the child on the page in social network"In contact with". The photo shows the girl standing on the windowsill of an airport window with her back to the viewer. She looks at the planes on the ground. She captioned the photo: “The most important passenger.”

This photograph was later circulated by many Russian and world media and became a symbol of the Sinai disaster. Diana's mother and father also died as a result of the plane crash.

The Russian President, as well as the leaders of many countries in Europe and the world, expressed condolences to the victims. The day after the plane crashed, mourning was declared in Russia. However, the French published three cartoons on the topic of the disaster, which caused a negative reaction from the Russian Federation and. In response, the French Foreign Ministry stated that “in France, journalists freely express their opinions,” while “it does not always coincide with the official position of the French authorities.”

“There were no questions about the car”

Soon after the incident, various versions of what happened began to be put forward. Almost immediately, the hypothesis that the plane crashed due to a pilot error was dismissed. Castaway The Airbus was operated by experienced pilots, and the crew commander, 48-year-old Valery Nemov, had flown over 12 thousand hours, of which more than 3,860 were on the Airbus A321.

However, details of the aircraft’s operation soon became known, and it turned out that it was far from new.

It was released in the spring of 1997 and made its first flight on May 9. After this, the aircraft was transferred to the American company International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), which by May 27 leased it to the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines (MEA), which had owned it for six years. On June 2, 2003, already under tail number TC-OAE, the airliner was leased to the Turkish airline Onur Air. This structure later sub-leased the aircraft to Saudi Arabian Airlines, and from July 30 to September 29, 2010 to Syrian Cham Wings Airlines. By the spring of 2012, the TC-OAE board returned to ILFC, and by March 30, 2012, it was leased to the Russian Kogalymavia.

On April 30 of the same 2012, it was bought from ILFC by the Dutch airline AerCap, which re-delivered this airliner to the Russian Kogalymavia. The Russian airline, in turn, has already been operating under the Metrojet brand since May 1, 2012.

During the long service of the aircraft, an unpleasant incident occurred from a safety point of view. On November 16, 2001, he was flying passenger flight ME 306 on the Beirut-Cairo route and during landing at the airport in the Egyptian capital, the pilots raised his nose too high, causing the tail to drop so low that it hit the ground. None of the 88 people on board the plane (81 passengers and 7 crew members) were injured then, and the airliner itself returned to passenger routes after undergoing repairs. This information was also confirmed by representatives of Kogalymavia, assuring that the aircraft passed all the necessary checks and technical tests on time.

On the eve of departure, the ill-fated flight underwent maintenance, and the receiving crew had no questions about the car.

Interrupted message

The investigation into the causes of the tragedy was launched by several large structures of the world, since Egypt is a very popular tourist destination among citizens of many countries. The investigation began to be carried out by the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Russian Bureau of Investigation and Analysis of Civil Aviation Safety of France, the German Federal Bureau of Investigation aviation accidents, the Irish Aircraft Accident Investigation Branch, and the US National Transportation Safety Board.

At the same time, according to the standards international law, Egyptian investigators were in charge since the incident occurred in that country's airspace. Already on the first of November, the previously found “black boxes” from the lost liner were deciphered. In the meantime, he opened criminal cases under Articles 263 and 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of traffic safety rules and operation of railway, air, sea and inland water transport and metro" and "Production, storage, transportation or sale of goods and products, performance of work or provision of services that do not meet safety requirements").

The UK and German airlines also interrupted flights with the Egyptian state, and France, the Netherlands and Belgium warned their citizens against flying to Sharm el-Sheikh. In addition, it announced the cancellation of night flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.

Customers not identified

Meanwhile, the victims in the disaster case filed a class action lawsuit against the tour operator, Kogalymavia airline and insurance companies for a total amount of about €1.4 billion. This is the first example of a class action lawsuit for such a serious amount in Russian history.

And although the involvement of Kogalymavia employees in the incident over Sinai is not confirmed by facts, in the spring of 2016 it banned domestic and international flights of this airline.

According to the most frequently voiced version, the Sinai division of the terrorist “” (both organizations are banned in Russia) was behind the terrorist attack. Its members accepted responsibility for this crime shortly after the fact.

However, there are other points of view. A number of experts believe that the Qatari organization Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (a cell of the Islamic State banned in Russia) could be behind the terrorist attack. The United States also announced its trace in the tragedy.

Be that as it may, after the death of the plane, Russian aviation began to intensify air strikes against targets of various Islamist organizations in Syria. For the first time, Russian strategic aviation was involved in raids on IS targets and other extremists.

However, the names of the specific perpetrators of the terrorist attack have not yet been established.

And on October 28, 2017, a monument to the victims of the disaster was unveiled at the Serafimovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg. In addition, among St. Petersburg residents there is an idea to erect a monument to 10-month-old Darina Gromova, which a famous sculptor has already promised to make for free.

Exactly a year ago, on October 31, 2015, the most massive plane crash in Russia in terms of the number of victims occurred. Then in the north of the Sinai Peninsula an A321 plane of the Russian airline Kogalymavia. There were 217 passengers on board, including 24 children, and seven crew members. They all died. Russian authorities have recognized the incident as a terrorist attack, but the international investigation has not yet been completed.

On October 31, an A321 aircraft of the Russian airline Kogalymavia was operating a charter flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The airliner took off at 5:50 am and disappeared from radar 23 minutes later. On the same day, Egyptian government search teams discovered the wreckage of a destroyed plane near the city of Nehel in the northern Sinai Peninsula. All 224 people on board died, including 219 Russians, four citizens of Ukraine and one native of Belarus.

Causes of the A321 crash

The international investigation, led by Egyptian aviation authorities, is not yet over. Representatives of Russia, France, Germany, Ireland and the USA take part in it.

Western media were the first to report that a terrorist attack could have occurred on board the A321, shortly after the plane crash, citing their sources in the intelligence services and officials. From these publications it followed that the US and British authorities considered the version of a terrorist attack to be the most likely. However, Moscow publicly distanced itself from it for a long time, calling the version of the terrorist attack premature and calling to wait for the official results of the investigation. And only on November 6, a decision was made to suspend air traffic with Egypt until the causes of the A321 crash were clarified and to evacuate the Russians there.

Officially, the FSB terrorist attack that occurred over Sinai only two and a half weeks after the disaster, on November 17. According to the department, an improvised explosive device went off during the flight. Vladimir Putin, at a meeting of the Security Council, find the organizers of the crash “anywhere on the planet” and destroy them.

However, even after these statements, the Egyptian authorities continued to insist that the most probable cause The disaster was a technical problem. And only in February 2016, the country's President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi admitted that a terrorist attack had occurred on board the A321.

In September, the Kommersant newspaper, citing sources, reported that an international technical commission had established the exact location of the explosion on the plane. According to the publication, experts determined that terrorists had mined the compartment oversized luggage in the tail of the plane, hiding an explosive device between baby carriages and wicker furniture carried by tourists.

Russia and the CIA believe that the explosion on board was organized by Wilayat Sinai (until 2014 - Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), a cell of the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS) banned in Russia. The group claimed responsibility for the downing of A321: On November 18, 2015, the Islamic State's propaganda magazine, Dabiq, published a photo of an improvised explosive device made from a can of Schweppes soda. As stated in the article, this is the device that was activated on board the A321. In August 2016, the Egyptian military reported the murder of Wilayat Sinai leader Abu Duaa al-Ansari, suspected of organizing the terrorist attack.

Scandalous case

Relatives of those killed in the disaster have repeatedly complained about the progress of the investigation and the process of paying compensation. In December, lawyer Igor Trunov, on behalf of 35 relatives, filed a complaint with the Basmanny Court about the inaction of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. According to the lawyer, it was expressed in the fact that the Investigative Committee ignored two appeals from relatives. In one of them, they asked to be informed of the number of the criminal case, to be recognized as victims and to be acquainted with the investigation materials. Another complaint concerned Ingosstrakh. The appeal alleged that the company fraudulently obtains from relatives of the deceased statements limiting their right to go to court to obtain compensation. Ingosstrakh itself categorically rejected these accusations. And the claim against Bastrykin was rejected.

Consequences

After the crash of the Kogalymavia plane, Russia suspended air traffic with Egypt, and tour operators were prohibited from working in this direction. They have been waiting all year for the resumption of communications with the country, which for many years was one of the main resort destinations for Russians. According to the latest data, this may happen no earlier than December-January.

To resume flights, the Egyptian side needs to fulfill a number of airport security requirements (their full list has not been officially published). During the year, Russia repeatedly sent its specialists to Egypt for inspections at the airports of Cairo, Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, but each time there were violations. According to sources from the Al-Watan newspaper quoted by TASS, “a number Russian structures refuses to discuss the issue of resuming flights with Egypt until the results of the official investigation appear.”

With the closure of air traffic, Egypt suffered significant losses. From the collapse of tourism, one of the country’s key industries (more than 11% of GDP until November 2015), Egypt’s budget, according to Reuters, lost more than three billion dollars.

The crash of the Russian airbus and the subsequent cessation of flights to the Arab Republic led to problems for Kogalymavia itself and the associated tour operator Brisco, which was the customer of flight 9268. The case of declaring the carrier bankrupt has been dragging on since the spring of 2015, the next meeting will take place on November 10. In March, Rosaviatsia limited Kogalymavia’s operator’s certificate and deprived it of access to 13 international destinations.

The organizer of the flight, tour operator Brisco, suspended operations on August 2 until it repaid debts to clients and agencies. As reported on the Brisco website, after the closure of flights to Egypt and Turkey, the company suffered “colossal financial and economic losses.”