Egypt air crash investigators ‘90% sure’ plane was brought down by a bomb

Investigators are “90% sure” the noise heard on the black box of a Russian airliner seconds before it crashed was caused by a bomb. "The indications and analysis so far of the sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb,“ a member of the Egyptian investigation team said on Sunday. "We are 90% sure it was a bomb.” The revelation comes a day after the team said it was too early to draw conclusions and a "spectral analysis" of the flight recorder was being carried out. If the conclusion is confirmed, then it could lead to a major rethink on air passenger security, experts and politicians warned.

If this turns out to be a device planted by an ISIL operative or by somebody inspired by ISIL, then clearly we will have to look again at the level of security we expect to see in airports in areas where ISIL is active

British foreign secretary Philip Hammond

The Airbus A321 crashed 23 minutes after taking off from the Sharm al-Sheikh tourist resort eight days ago, killing all 224 passengers and crew. Islamic State militants fighting Egyptian security forces in Sinai said they brought it down. The crash has highlighted concerns about security at the resort’s airport with seven officials saying on Sunday that the airport had long suffered from security gaps including a malfunctioning key baggage scanning device, lax searches at an entry gate for plane food and fuel and bribe-taking by policemen. In the past 24 hours, Russia has returned 11,000 of its 80,000 people stranded by the Kremlin’s decision on Friday to halt all flights to Egypt. Britain has flown 3,500 holidaymakers out of Sharm el-Sheikh but said it could take 10 days for all British tourists to be flown home.

What happened in Sharm al-Sheikh last week, and to a lesser extent with the Germanwings aircraft, are game changers for our industry

Emirates Airlines president Tim Clark

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