The cause of the crash of plane 321 vbulletin. Lost flight: what is known about the causes of the A321 crash a year later

The media called the cause of the A321 crash an “explosion in the plane of the engine.”

A321 crash site

Photo: epa/vostock-photo

Airbus A321 crashed over Sinai Peninsula due to an explosion in the area of ​​the aircraft engine: this is evidenced by data obtained during the investigation into the causes of the disaster. As RBC reports with reference to the publication Al-Masry Al-Youm, this was stated by a source in the investigative commission.

According to the publication’s interlocutor, experts completed decoding the “black boxes”, and the first results of the investigation were presented at a meeting of the international investigative commission on the evening of November 3.

An Airbus A321 source named an “explosion in the plane of the engine” as the main cause of the plane crash. At the same time, he emphasized that the cause of the explosion would need to be established through laboratory tests of the materials remaining on the bodies of the victims and at the crash site.

“The investigation still has suspicions about a possible terrorist attack. Samples taken from the bodies and wreckage of the plane will help determine whether the explosion was the result of a terrorist attack or a technical malfunction of the engine,” the source told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The publication's source also added that the flight recorders recorded a rapid decrease in altitude. “The power of the explosion was great, both engines failed at once, the explosion caused fire and destruction of the plane in the air,” a source told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The day before, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi rejected the version of the A321 crash related to the terrorist attack. In an interview with The Telegraph, the Egyptian leader called reports that a bomb on the plane or a shell caused the crash to be “baseless speculation.” Further comments regarding the incident, in his opinion, are “premature and not based on any proper facts.”

An early version of the terrorist attack as possible reason The official representative of the Egyptian government also denied the crash of the Kogalymavia airliner Hussam al-Kuwaish. He emphasized that all the evidence indicates that a technical malfunction, and not an external influence, led to the plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula.

At the same time, the airline that owned the A321 said that the only explicable cause of the crash could be an external influence. “There is no failure that could cause the aircraft to break up in mid-air. IN in this case[in the event of a system failure] the plane would have collapsed [only] from hitting the ground,” Kogalymavia said.

As Yugopolis reported, In their opinion, the most probable cause The plane crash over the Sinai Peninsula was caused by an explosive device being carried on board an Airbus A321. At the same time, Stratfor noted that the possibility of aircraft failure cannot be completely ruled out.

An Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia Airlines, flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, crashed 100 km from the Egyptian city of El Arish on the morning of October 31. All 224 people on board were killed. Among the dead were two flight attendants - natives of Kuban. Prohibited in Russia " Islamic State“On the same day, it took responsibility for the plane crash, but subsequently the Russian authorities and Egyptian intelligence services denied information about the involvement of terrorists in the A321 crash. On November 4, IS militants reiterated their involvement in the downing of the plane.

CAIRO, November 7. /Corr. TASS Dina Drunk/. In the last seconds of the flight recorder recording of the Russian A321 that crashed in Egypt, an extraneous sound is heard. This was announced on Saturday by the head of the international commission to investigate the causes of the crash of the airliner, Ayman al-Mukaddam.

According to him, both “black boxes” were found on the first day of the crash, and the scattering of debris is more than 12 km, but not all of them could be found. "All discovered parts of the airliner will be delivered to Cairo within safe place for further examination," he said.

“The initial decoding of the parametric “black box” indicates that the takeoff was made at 03:50:06 UTC (06:50:06 Moscow time). The recording of the recorders stopped at 04:13:20 (07:13:20 Moscow time), - said “Thus, the duration from the moment of takeoff until the recording stopped was 23 minutes 14 seconds. The last recording records the altitude at 30,888 feet (about 9,414 meters), while the aircraft was in the climb stage.”

According to him, the last recorded speed was 281 knots (about 521 km/h). “The autopilot was turned on until the end of the parametric recorder recording,” al-Muqaddam added.

As for the voice recorder, as the head of the investigation indicated, “it was safely unloaded and the first decoding has already been done.” “However, the team studying it is still in the deciphering stage, which will take some time,” he said.

“It has now been established that noise is heard in the last seconds of the recording,” Alt-Mukaddam noted. “The nature of this sound will be determined in a special laboratory, where a spectral analysis will be carried out.”

The day before, a source in the Russian representation at the commission said that the Russian side “has no confirmation of the fact of an explosion on board the plane.”

All versions are being studied

As the head of the commission emphasized, the debris found at the crash site of the Russian A321 in Sinai does not allow us to determine the nature of the impact and the exact causes of the disaster.

“The plane broke up in the air, and so far it is not possible to say exactly the reasons for this,” he said. “The wreckage of the airliner did not give us a clear picture of what happened.”

All versions of the Russian A321 crash in Egypt are currently being studied, he said. “We have not yet come to a final conclusion,” al-Muqaddam emphasized.

Earlier, the director of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bortnikov, said that he considers it necessary to suspend flights Russian aviation to Egypt until the true causes of the tragedy with A321 are established. “Until we decide on the true reasons for what happened, I consider it advisable to suspend Russian aviation flights to Egypt. This applies primarily to the tourist channel,” Bortnikov said. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with the recommendation of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee. On November 6 at 20.00, air traffic with Egypt was suspended.

Egypt asks to share information

Cairo called on all parties to share information on the crash of the Russian A321 in the skies over the Sinai Peninsula.

“There have been reports in the media, including citing official intelligence, that support a certain scenario,” he said. “In this regard, the commission states that it has not received any information or evidence in this regard. We call on the sources of these reports provide comprehensive data that will help us complete our mission."

“I said that we are ready to accept any information regarding the disaster from any party. We need any information... And if any party wants to provide us with information, we have no objections,” al-Muqaddam said.

“The commission is now considering all possible scenarios for the incident, but so far we have not come to any conclusion,” al-Muqaddam said.

Common information about the disaster Russian plane, which we heard about, were not made available to the Egyptian intelligence services in detail. We expected that all technical information on this issue would be provided to us. Foreign intelligence services did not cooperate with Egypt in investigating the cause of the crash of the Russian airliner

Egyptian Foreign Minister

Sameh Shukri

Composition of the commission

According to al-Muqaddam, the investigation commission included 47 investigators. “Among them are 29 from Egypt, seven from the Russian Federation, six from France, two from Germany and three from Ireland (the country of registration of the aircraft),” he emphasized. “In addition, they include 10 technical advisers from Airbus and one from IASA ( International Aviation Safety Association). A total of 58 experts."

As al-Muqaddam noted, investigators visited the crash site five times, “the last time last Wednesday.” "It's bad now weather that do not allow access to the disaster area,” he said. “As soon as it allows, they will go there again.”

The Ministry of Emergency Situations still remains in Sinai

A rescue team from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations remains in the area of ​​the A321 plane crash on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

“Russian rescuers are assisting specialists of the Interstate Aviation Committee, which is engaged in identifying the causes of the disaster,” Alexander Agafonov, head of the EMERCOM operational group in Sinai, head of the Department of Fire and Rescue Forces and Military Units, told TASS.

Disaster in Egypt

Airplane A321 Russian airline Kogalymavia, operating flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, crashed on October 31, about half an hour after departure, 100 km south of administrative center North Sinai province El Arish city near settlement El-Hasna. There were a total of 217 passengers and seven crew members on the plane; no one survived.

Continuation

According to experts, the reasons for the destruction passenger plane The Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia airlines in the air could have been damaged by a shock wave from the explosion of a small bomb, torn off engine parts or fatigue cracks that appeared in the supporting structures, the Kommersant newspaper writes on Monday, November 2.

Experts call one of the versions of the plane crash a bomb explosion in the luggage compartment, which could lead to explosive depressurization of the plane due to a sharp pressure drop. A similar situation occurred with a Pan American Boeing 747 that crashed in December 1988. Then experts for a long time could not understand what caused the crash of the airliner, but after all the found wreckage of the plane was collected, in one of the sheets of the fuselage skin they saw a hole with curved edges the size of a watermelon. Experts determined that a plasticite-based bomb was placed in a small transistor and it exploded in the suitcase of one of the passengers in the luggage compartment. This passenger, who did not board the plane himself, was then a terrorist from Libya.

The source told the publication that there is also a version that the integrity of the airliner could have been damaged by a fatigue crack, which probably appeared in the fuselage frame. In 2001, an Airbus A321, which did not yet belong to Kogalymavia, hit the runway with its tail when landing at Cairo airport. This incident, which is called a “fellow touch” in aviation, led to a violation of the structural geometry and flight characteristics of the aircraft. A specialist interviewed by the publication believes that after an unsuccessful landing, the plane was checked using non-destructive testing and put into operation only after all defects were corrected.

“The accident-free flight statistics for aircraft like Airbus 321 are about 11-12 million hours. If an accident does occur, it means that something was overlooked during maintenance or repair,” the expert explained to Kommersant.

Another cause of depressurization could be a faulty engine. In case of non-localized destruction of the turbine, the blades that come off it, as experts say, fly out at great speed and, moving in one plane, cut the wing and fuselage of the airliner like a saw blade.

The newspaper's interlocutors note that the exact cause of the A321 crash will not be easy to establish. Readings from the black boxes will show how all the aircraft's systems functioned, as well as what measures the crew took. Probably, the cause of the plane crash will be suggested to experts by the last conversations of the crew members, if they managed to understand and discuss the cause of the plane crash. However, for a full investigation it is necessary to collect all the wreckage of the plane and reconstruct from it the outline of the crashed airliner.

It was established that the A321, when falling from a height, turned over and “literally fell on its back,” Interfax reported on Monday, citing an informed source in Cairo. The agency's interlocutor also said that the crew did not inform ground services about problems on board, did not send distress signals and did not request emergency landing. At the same time, the source emphasized that it is premature to build any versions about the causes of the plane crash.

On the morning of October 31, Russian passenger Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia airlines crashed over the Sinai Peninsula during a flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. There were 224 people on board the plane, all of them died. The causes of the disaster are being established. The A321 black boxes were discovered on Saturday at the crash site, and specialists in Egypt deciphered them on Sunday. The IAC stated that the airliner is in the air.