No survivors: 100 victims found ‘strapped in seats’ in crashed Russian plane

At least 100 victims, many of whom were still strapped to their seats, have been pulled from the wreckage of the Russian passenger plane which crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, rescue officials say. None of the 224 people on board the Airbus A321 survived the crash, Egyptian authorities have confirmed, following earlier reports that voices had been heard coming from within the wreckage. An Egyptian security officer at the scene said the bodies of five children were among those which have been found so far. There are “a lot of dead on the ground and many who died whilst strapped to their seats,” the official said.

The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part crashed into a rock.

An Egyptian security officer

The plane, operated by the Russian airline Kogalymavia, also known as Metrojet, took off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh shortly before six am local time, bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg. It disappeared from radar screens some 23 minutes into the flight. The captain reportedly told air traffic control shortly after take-off that the plane had a technical fault and requested a change of route. Plane tracking websites showed the aircraft was flying at 31,000 ft before it suddenly dropped 5,000 ft in as little as a minute and disappeared from screens. The wreckage was found in the mountainous Hassana area, 22 miles (35km) south of the northern city of Arish.

Although hostile action has been dismissed I am absolutely certain that will be one of the focuses of investigators on the ground.

Mike Vivian, the former head of flight operations at the Civil Aviation Authority

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