Egypt is often jokingly compared to a Christmas tree: both winter and summer are the same color. The turquoise sea, a colorful crowd of tourists, a vibrant underwater world that attracts divers from all over the world - all this attracts travelers. The Russians were eager to go there, as if they were going to a second dacha: at least a week to rest from work and fry in the sun. Whole families were flying until the plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 made the whole country shudder.
Tragic accident
The tourist group of the company "Brisco" 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 a great mood. They posted pictures of a successful holiday on social networks. It was Saturday, and on Monday, many had to plunge into everyday work: someone was waiting for work, someone - study.
Airbus A321–231 EI-ETJ,arrived from Samara, took on board 217 passengers. By 12 noon, they and the seven crew members were to be in the Northern capital, where many were expected at the airport by relatives and friends. Having gained a predetermined altitude of 9400 meters in 23 minutes, at a speed of 520 km / h, the aircraft suddenly disappeared from the radar. At 6:15 a.m. (7:15 a.m. Moscow time), the plane crashed near the Sinai Peninsula near El Arish Airport, the hottest point in Egypt, where Al-Qaeda Islamists opposed government forces.
Versions of the tragedy
Meeting flight 9268 at Pulkovo airport anxiously watched the board, which displayed the information: "Arrival delayed." And by evening, the whole country already knew that the wreckage of the aircraft that had disappeared from the radar had been discovered by the Egyptian authorities. Scattered over a distance of 13 kilometers, with a detached tail, they were shown on television, which caused many versions of experts about the possible causes of the disaster. Three were considered the most reliable:
- Technical problems associated with either engine failure or metal fatigue. In the tail section, traces of plating repair were found after an aircraft touched the asph alt when landing at Cairo airport in 2001. The resulting microcrack could cause the destruction of the aircraft with a climb.
- Air crash in Egypt is crew error.
- Terrorist act.
At the scene of the tragedy, an IAC commission headed by a representative of Egypt began to workAyman al-Mukkadam. It included representatives of Russia, France, Germany, the USA and Ireland. After examining the evidence and deciphering the flight recorders, the first two versions were found to be invalid.
Aircraft
The A321 disaster over the Sinai Peninsula was the largest in the history of Egypt and modern Russia. The airbus belonged to the Kogalymavia company, which was subjected to a thorough check. It was found that after the accident in 2001, the repair of the aircraft was carried out in France at the manufacturing plant, after which all the 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 condition. This is evidenced by weekly technical checks, the last of which was carried out on 2015-26-10. The flight recorders did not detect a malfunction in the systems. Until the 23rd minute, the flight went quite normally.
Crew
Forty-eight-year-old crew commander Valery Nemov is a graduate of SVAAULS (Stavropol military school). He is one of the few who retrained as a civil aviation pilot in the difficult 90s. He has flown on Airbuses since 2008, having 12,000 flight hours, which testifies to his colossal 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 been trained in the Czech Republic. I flew them for over 2 years. The total flight time was 6 thousand hours. Both pilots were in good standing in theirairlines. Nemov was even prematurely called back from vacation to be sent on the infamous flight 9268.
Official version
Two weeks after the tragedy, the version of the terrorist attack was officially announced by the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, during a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation. In support of his words, he cited the following evidence:
- American satellites recorded a thermal flash over Sinai during the disaster, which indicates an explosion on board the aircraft.
- Fragment of the fuselage 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.
- When deciphering the recorder, fixing the conversations, before interrupting the recording, an extraneous noise is heard, the nature of which can be attributed to an explosive wave.
- The plane crash in Egypt caused a great public outcry. After a while, ISIS militants not only admitted responsibility for the attack, but also posted a photo of an improvised explosive device (IED) on the pages of Dabig magazine.
- Some of the dead were found to have injuries indicating death from the consequences of the explosion (burns, tissue ruptures).
- Traces of explosives, TNT molecules, were found in fragments of fragments, luggage and on the body of the victims.
The power of the explosion was estimated at 1 kilogram of TNT equivalent. The alleged location of the IED is the tail section of the aircraft. For the blast wave moved forward, but the fracture of the fuselage prevented its furtherpromotion.
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 in Egypt. The main question was one: "How did the IEDs get on board the liner?" The FSB began to study the biographies of 34 passengers (11 men and 23 women) who had TNT molecules on their bodies. But official Egypt soon declared that there was no evidence for an unequivocal assertion of a terrorist attack on board the aircraft. 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 President of Egypt officially acknowledge the attack. It was found that the bomb was made from plastite used to create live ammunition. It is powered by clockwork. The plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 showed that the security system at the airport does not meet international standards. The IED could have gotten on board with the food company through employees with access to the runway, as well as through hand luggage during baggage checks. The latest information is that the explosive device was in the cabin in the immediate vicinity of location 31A. All these facts led to the ban on the sale of holiday tours in Egypt.
Passengers of the flight
EI-ETJ are the last digits of the Airbus number. According to them, the aviators called the board among themselves "Juliet", affectionately - "Julia". On that tragic morning, she broke threeaviation marriage and killed a young steward who replaced a colleague who quit due to a bad dream. She also claimed the lives of 217 passengers, 25 of whom were children. Those killed in a plane crash in Egypt are entire families, dozens of ruined love stories, babies who are never destined to become adults. Ten-month-old Darina Gromova flew on this flight with her parents. Her mother posted a photo of her on a social network before the flight. The girl stands at the airport facing the runway, and at the bottom is the signature: “Main Passenger”. This picture has become a symbol of the tragic flight from which no one managed to return.
Almost all passengers are Russians, 4 people are citizens of Ukraine, 1 - Belarus. The majority are residents of St. Petersburg, although there are also representatives of other regions: Pskov, Novgorod, Ulyanovsk. Those killed in a plane crash in Egypt are people of various professions. Even while the relatives were engaged in the identification of bodies, caring people formed a collective portrait of passengers, bit by bit collecting information about them. 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 Sinai. Nine months have passed: many relatives received compensation, identified and buried their loved ones, but the pain did not subside. On August 5, 2016, it was reported that forty-five militants led by Abu Dua al-Ansari, who was responsible for the plane crash in Egypt, were killed during a military operation near El Arish. So I want to believethat this will never happen again!
