Investigations by the Egyptian committee of the Metrojet Airbus A321 that crashed on October 31 killing all 224 people on board stated that the incident was not a “terrorist act” contrary to conclusions made by Russian investigators who claimed last month that a domestic made bomb equivalent to 1kg of TNT made with materials not found in Russia were used in the attack. Almost all the victims were Russians returning from Egypt.
The jet crash is being linked to a mechanical problem by Egypt and the investigation team is expected to focus on the technical aspect of the jet according to Ayman al Mokkadem, head of the Egyptian investigations, while the released statement posted on the Ministry of Civil Aviation pointed out that it had not received any “information indicating unlawful interference.” To support the credibility of the report, the statement added that officials of all the different parties that are concerned about the crash were giving the “full opportunity” to access the site before components were taken for further investigations.
Reacting to the statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov declined to comment on the Egyptian report but said “I can only recall the conclusion of our experts and our special services that indicates it was really a terrorist act.” ISIS had claimed responsibility of the attack and published a picture of the alleged materials used in its magazine. The aircraft was built in 1997.
Critics of the Egyptian report claim that Cairo is denying a terrorist attack to save its tourism sector that has been seriously hampered by the incident. Authorities are trying to bolster security at airports and also cooperating with the UK, Germany and Russia to review security procedures and make recommendations.
Egypt denies terrorist crashed jet, eyes mechanical problems
