Russian airliner crashes in Egypt
A Russian
airliner carrying 224 passengers and crew yesterday crashed in Egypt ’s Sinai Peninsula ,
and a security officer at the scene said most passengers appeared to have been
killed.
The Airbus
A321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand name Metrojet,
was flying from the Sinai Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St
Petersburg in Russia
An authoritative
Sweden-based aviation tracking service said the aircraft, having made an
apparently smooth take off, lurched into a rapid descent shortly after
approaching cruising altitude.
“I now see a
tragic scene,” an Egyptian security officer at the scene said by telephone. “A
lot of dead on the ground and many who died whilst strapped to their seats.”
“The plane
split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part that
crashed into a rock. We have extracted at least 100 bodies and the rest are
still inside,” said the officer, who requested anonymity.
Sinai is the
scene of an insurgency by militants close to Islamic State, who have killed
hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police and have also attacked Western targets
in recent months.
Egyptian
Minister of Civil Aviation Mohammed Hossam Kemal was quoted in a Cabinet
statement as saying it was too soon to determine the cause of the crash.
Security
sources said there was no indication the Airbus had been shot down or blown up.
Egyptian
Prime Minister Sherif Ismail was heading to the crash site in the Hassana area 35km south of the Sinai Mediterranean coastal
city of Al Arish
Russian
television showed film of anxious relatives and friends waiting for information
at St Petersburg
Russian
President Vladimir Putin declared a day of national mourning for today.
The A321 is a
185-seat medium-haul jet in service since 1994, with more than 1,100 in operation worldwide and a good
safety record. It is a highly automated aircraft that relies on computers to
help pilots stay within safe flying limits.
Yesterday’s
crash is the second fatal accident involving this variant of the A320 jetliner
family, according to data from the Flight Safety Foundation.
Airbus said
it had no independent information on the crash and declined to comment on the
aircraft involved.
Emergency
services and aviation specialists quickly began an inspection of the wreckage
for any patterns of damage that could point to the cause. One of two flight
recorders was quickly found, but wreckage was scattered over a wide area.
The security
officer said 120 intact bodies had been found.
“We are
hearing a lot of telephones ringing, most likely belonging to the victims, and
security forces are collecting them and putting them into a bag,” he said.
The aircraft
took off at 5:51am Cairo
It was at an
altitude of 9,400m when
it vanished from radar screens.
Accidents at
cruising altitude are one of the rarest categories of accidents, but also among
the most deadly, accounting for 13 percent of fatal incidents, but 27 percent
of fatalities since 2005, according to Boeing.
Structure of the Lead：
WHO-
WHEN-
WHAT- A Russian airliner carrying 224 passengers and crew crashed
WHY-not given
WHERE- in Egypt ’s Sinai Peninsula
HOW-not given
Keywords：
- crash 墜毀
- aircraft 飛機
- go down 下降
- split 爆裂
- jetliner 噴射客機
- inspection 檢查
- wreckage 殘骸
- scatter 分散
- take off 起飛
- fatal 致命的
