The plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015: reasons. Flight 9268

Egypt is often jokingly compared to a tree: both winter and summer in it are the same color. The turquoise sea, a motley crowd of tourists, a bright underwater world, attracting divers from all over the world - all this attracts travelers. The Russians were eager to go there as if to a second dacha: at least a week's rest from work and fire in the sun. They flew in whole families, until the plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 forced the whole country to shudder.

Tragic incident

The Brisco team traveled back by 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 laid out pictures of the successful rest in social networks. It was Saturday, and on Monday, many had to plunge into everyday life: someone was waiting for work, someone was studying.

Airliner Airbus A321-231 EI-ETJ, who arrived from Samara, took on board 217 passengers. They and the seven crew members were to be in the northern capital by 12 noon, where many were waiting at the airport for their relatives and friends. Having collected for 23 minutes a given altitude of 9400 meters, at a speed of 520 km / h, the aircraft suddenly disappeared from the radar. At 6.15 (7.15 Moscow), the plane crashed near the Sinai Peninsula near El Arish Airport, the hottest point in Egypt, where government forces were confronted by al-Qaeda Islamists.

Versions of the tragedy

Meeting flight 9268 at Pulkovo airport followed with alarm the scoreboard, which showed information: "Arrival is delayed". And by the evening the entire country already knew that the fragments of an aircraft missing from the radar were found by the Egyptian authorities. Scattered over an extent of 13 kilometers, with the tail section torn off, they were shown on television, which caused many versions of experts about possible causes of the disaster. The most reliable were three:

• Technical problems associated with either engine failure or metal fatigue. In the tail section, traces of the repair of the plating were discovered after the aircraft hit the asphalt with a tail at the airport in Cairo in 2001 when it touched down. The resulting microcrack could, with a set of heights, cause the destruction of the aircraft.
• The plane crash in Egypt is the crew's fault.
• The terrorist act.

At the site of the tragedy, the IAC commission, headed by the representative of Egypt, Ayman al-Muqqadam, began to work. It included representatives of Russia, France, Germany, the United States and Ireland. After examining the evidence and deciphering the flight recorders, the first two versions were found to be untenable.

Aircraft

The disaster A321 over the Sinai Peninsula became the largest in the history of Egypt and modern Russia. The airbus belonged to the company "Kogalymavia", which underwent a thorough check. It was clarified that, after the emergency situation of 2001, aircraft repairs were carried out in France at the manufacturer, after which all 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 order. This is evidenced by weekly technical inspections, the last of which was carried out on 26.10.2015. Airborne recorders did not detect a malfunction in the operation of the systems. Until the 23rd minute the flight was quite regular.

Crew

The forty-eight-year-old commander of the crew Valery Nemov is a graduate of SVAAULSH (Stavropol military school). He is one of the few who in the difficult 90-ies was re-trained as a civil aviation pilot. On the "Airbus" flew since 2008, having 12 thousand hours of raid, which indicates his colossal experience. The co-pilot also came from military aviation, being a veteran of the Chechen campaign. After retiring, Sergei Trukhachev retrained to A321, after training in the Czech Republic. Flied on them for more than 2 years. Total plaque was 6 thousand hours. Both pilots were in good standing with their airline. Nemov was even prematurely summoned from vacation to send to the infamous flight 9268.

Official version

Two weeks after the tragedy, the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov , officially announced the terrorist act during a meeting with the Russian president. In support of his words, he cited the following evidence:

1. US satellites recorded a heat flare over Sinai during the disaster, which indicates an explosion on board the aircraft.
2. Fragment of the fuselage has a hole diameter of about one meter. Its edges are bent outwards. This indicates that the source of the explosion was inside.
3. When decoding the recorder that records the negotiations, an outside noise can be heard before the recording is interrupted, the character of which can be attributed to the blast wave.
4. The plane crash in Egypt caused a great public response. After a while, the militants of the IGIL not only acknowledged the responsibility for committing a terrorist act, but also posted photos of an improvised explosive device (IED) on the pages of Dabig magazine.
5. Some of the victims found injuries, which indicate death from the consequences of the explosion (burns, tissue ruptures).
6. In the fragments of fragments, luggage and on the body of the victims, traces of explosives, the molecules of TNT, were found.

The power of the explosion was estimated at 1 kilogram of TNT equivalent. The presumed location of the IED is the tail of the aircraft. For the blast wave moved forward, but the fuselage rift prevented its further advance.

The 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 airport of Egypt. The main question was one: "How did the IED get on board the liner?" The FSB began to study the biographies of 34 passengers (11 men and 23 women), on whose body were the molecules of TNT. But official Egypt soon stated that there is no evidence for an unequivocal statement about the terrorist attack on board the aircraft. None of the employees was actually arrested. The Russian authorities announced a remuneration of $ 50 million for any information about the terrorists.

Only in February 2016 from the President of Egypt the official recognition of the terrorist act was made. It was found out that the bomb was made of the plastic used to create military shells. It is powered by a clockwork. The plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 showed that the airport security system does not meet international standards. IED could get on board with the company supplying the products, through employees who have access to the take-off strip, and also through hand luggage during the check of luggage. The latest data are such that the explosive device was in the cabin in the immediate vicinity of the seat 31A. All these facts led to the ban on the sale of tours to rest in Egypt.

Passengers of the flight

EI-ETJ - last digits of the airbus number. According to them, the aviators called the side "Julietta" among themselves, affectionately - "Djulka". On that tragic morning, she broke three aviation marriages and killed a young steward, who was replaced instead of a colleague who quit because of a terrible dream. And 217 passengers, 25 of whom are children, took their lives with them. Those killed in a plane crash in Egypt are entire families, dozens of destroyed love stories, babies who will never become adults. This flight with her parents flew ten-month Darina Gromova. Her mother put her picture in the social network before departure. The girl stands at the airport facing the runway, and at the bottom the signature: "The main passenger". This picture became a symbol of a tragic flight, from which no one could return.

Almost all passengers are Russians, 4 people are citizens of Ukraine, 1 - Belarus. The majority are residents of St. Petersburg, although there are representatives of other areas: Pskov, Novgorod, Ulyanovsk. Fatalities in a plane crash in Egypt are people of different professions. Still while relatives were engaged in identification of bodies, not indifferent people formed a collective portrait of passengers, collecting information on them by their grains. A remarkable gallery was created, where there were many good words about each.

Almost a year later

July 31, Moscow and St. Petersburg held a rally in memory of the victims of the Sinai. It took 9 months: many relatives received compensation, identified and buried their loved ones, but the pain did not abate. On August 5, 2016, it was reported that forty-five militants, led by Abu Dua al-Ansari, who had caused a plane crash in Egypt, were killed in a military operation near El Arish. So I want to believe that this will never happen again!