Kogalymavia flight 9268

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Kogalymavia flight 9268
Airbus A321-231 MetroJet EI-ETJ.JPG

The machine in August 2014, in the colors of Metrojet, a brand of the airline Kogalymavia
Accident summary
place Sinai Peninsula , Egypt at 30 ° 10 ′ 58.8 ″  N , 34 ° 9 ′ 39.6 ″  E (last contact) EgyptEgypt 
date October 31, 2015
Fatalities 224
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type Airbus A321-231
operator Kogalymavia (Metrojet)
Mark EI-ETJ ( Ireland )
Departure airport Sharm El Sheikh Airport , EgyptEgyptEgypt 
Destination airport Saint Petersburg Pulkovo Airport , RussiaRussiaRussia 
Passengers 217
crew 7th
Lists of aviation accidents

Coordinates: 30 ° 10 '58.8 "  N , 34 ° 9' 39.6"  O metrojet flight 9268 ( flight number : IATA 7K 9268 , ICAO KGL9268 ) was a Metrojet- charter of the Russian airline Kogalymavia from the airport Sharm el-Sheikh , Egypt , to Saint Petersburg ( Pulkovo Airport ). On October 31, 2015, the Airbus A321 crashed on the Sinai Peninsula east of Bir el-Hassana (Hasna) and 70 km south of al-Arish . There were 224 fatalities.

Shortly after the crash, the terrorist organization “ Islamic State ” (IS) claimed responsibility for an attack on the aircraft. Due to suspected traces of explosives, Russia regards the plane crash as a terrorist attack caused by a bomb . In February 2016, Egypt also recognized the crash as an act of terrorism after long hesitation resulting from concerns about its tourism industry.

It is the worst accident involving an aircraft in the Airbus A320 family and the most casualty crash of an aircraft in Egypt, as well as the worst incident involving a Russian aircraft.

plane

The aircraft of the type Airbus A321-231 had the serial number 663, it was the second Airbus A321-200 ever built. The first flight took place on May 9, 1997 with the registration D-AVZK; on May 27, 1997 it was delivered to the US aircraft leasing company International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC). His first leasing customer, the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines (MEA), operated it with the French registration number F-OHMP and returned it to ILFC in May 2003.

From June 2003 to December 2006 the Turkish Onur Air rented the aircraft with the registration TC-OAE. From November 30, 2007 to January 24, 2008, Onur Air leased it to Saudi Arabian Airlines and then operated it again itself. In spring 2012, Onur Air returned the aircraft to ILFC; from March 30, 2012 Kogalymavia rented it. On April 30, 2012, ILFC sold the aircraft to the Dutch aircraft leasing company AerCap and Kogalymavia continued to use it. On May 1, 2012, the use of Kogalymavia was transferred to the subsidiary Metrojet. The aircraft, equipped with two IAE V2533-A5 engines, had the Irish aircraft registration EI-ETJ.

From 1997 to 2015, it completed a total of 55,772 flight hours and 21,175 take-offs and landings. In November 2001, the aircraft suffered damage to the rear of the aircraft from a tail strike while landing at Cairo International Airport .

Flight history

Flight route 9268

The aircraft took off at 05:51 a.m. local time (03:51 UTC ). After that, at 06:11 a.m. (04:11 UTC) it rose again from 30,300  feet at 405  knots according to ADS-B data to an altitude of 33,500 feet within one minute, but then apparently lost speed suddenly and reported at 06 : 1:22 p.m. (04:13:22 UTC) only a speed of 62 knots from an altitude of 27,925 feet at position 30 ° 11 'north latitude, 34 ° 10' east longitude. This was the last ADS-B signal he received. The pilots did not contact the air traffic controllers in Cyprus as intended to look after the flight.

Crew and passengers

On board the flight on October 31, 2015, there were 224 people (including 25 children and seven crew members). Among the 217 passengers, 212 were Russian, four Ukrainian and one Belarusian citizen.

Salvage

Egyptian rescue workers found debris from the Airbus A321 east of Hasna and 70 km south of the Al-Arish airport in Sinai. The bodies were taken to Cairo and a hospital in Sinai. Both flight recorders were found on the day of the crash .

Accident investigation

Two investigators each from the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'aviation civile (BEA) and the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) were sent to represent the aircraft manufacturer country .

Viktor Sorochenko from the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) said in Cairo that the plane broke apart in the air. The investigations based on the two flight recorders found are still ongoing. For the rubble search, 6 square miles (about 15.5 km²) would be combed and 163 bodies had been found by noon (November 1st).

The head of the investigative commission, Ayman al-Muqaddam, confirmed on November 7, 2015 that a noise could be heard in the last second of the voice recorder recordings that should be further analyzed. All possible scenarios are considered. The foreign secret services were asked to pass on information to the Commission to investigate the incident.

On December 13, 2015, the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Cairo presented a first preliminary report. According to the ministry, the technical commission of inquiry has not yet received any evidence of a terrorist attack.

Speculation about the cause of the crash

Egyptian authorities quickly spoke of a technical defect. In the media, however, it was also pointed out that the militant terrorist organization Wilayat Sinai , which is part of the terror complex of the Islamic State (IS), is active in the north and center of Sinai . On the same day, Wilayat Sinai announced via a Twitter account that she had crashed the Russian passenger plane. A video appeared earlier; it shows an airplane at high altitude in a clear sky, which explodes and falls to the ground. The authenticity of the film has been questioned. According to the Egyptian authorities, there is no evidence that it could have been a shooting down.

An American observation satellite registered a heat flash over the Sinai at the time of the accident.

On November 4th, Egyptian and Russian newspapers stated that, based on an evaluation of the black box, the explosion of an engine could be a possible cause of the accident, while British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond stated that there was a "significant probability" that the crash "of caused by a bomb on board the Russian plane ”.

According to statements by the French television broadcaster France 2 on November 6, 2015, based on an evaluation of the flight recorders, the European accident investigators are convinced that there was an explosion on board that was not due to a technical cause.

On November 8, 2015, an alleged member of the Egyptian commission of inquiry anonymously reported to the Reuters news agency : "We are 90 percent sure that it was a bomb."

The head of the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB , Alexander Bortnikow , was quoted on November 17, 2015 as saying that traces of explosives had been found on the wreckage and personal effects of the passengers. As a result, Bortnikov found: "We can clearly say that it was a terrorist attack". The self-made bomb had an explosive force of up to 1.5 kilograms of TNT, said Bortnikow. Some employees at Sharm El Sheikh airport are said to have been arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting. The FSB offered a $ 50 million reward for clues about the perpetrators of the plane crash.

The Reuters news agency reported on January 29, 2016 that an aircraft mechanic from Egypt Air had been arrested on suspicion of smuggling a bomb on board on behalf of the "Islamic State". In addition, two police officers and one employee in the baggage service are said to have been arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting. It was not until the end of February 2016 that the Egyptian President spoke for the first time of a non-technical cause of the crash and suspected that terrorists had caused it on purpose.

Flight 9268 in the context of other flight accident investigations in Egypt

Flight 9268 is now one of a series of incidents in which, in the course of multinational aircraft accident investigations, a controversy has arisen between Egyptian investigators and the investigation group cooperating with them:

  • On October 31, 1999, a Boeing 767 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Egypt Air Flight 990 off the coast of the United States , killing all 217 people on board. The American Aviation Safety Authority (NTSB) came to the conclusion, due to anomalies in the recording of the voice recorder and investigations in the area of First Officer Gamil El-Batouti, that the latter had deliberately crashed the machine because he was awaiting disciplinary action for sexual misconduct . The Egyptian investigators contradicted the suicide thesis and attributed the crash in their final report to a loss of control as a result of an elevator defect , which the NTSB in turn ruled out. The controversy between the NTSB and the Egyptian investigators could never be resolved.
  • On May 19, 2016, an Airbus A320-200 crashed on Egypt Air Flight 804 from Paris to Cairo in the Mediterranean Sea shortly after entering Egyptian airspace. All 66 people on board were killed in the crash. The Egyptian investigators said in December 2016 that they had found traces of explosives on the bodies of the passengers and declared an attack on the machine as the cause of the crash. Almost a year after the crash, the French investigators of the BEA rejected the attack thesis and suspected a fire in the cockpit as a result of an exploded tablet and a subsequent loss of control. The Egyptian investigators upheld their attack hypothesis for another year before joining the BEA theory. A final report on the incident has not yet been published; the BEA criticizes the opaque and poorly cooperative way of working of its Egyptian colleagues.

consequences

As a consequence, "as a precautionary measure", all flights between Sharm El Sheikh and British airports have been temporarily suspended. This assessment was based on analyzes by British secret services. On the special flights to bring back around 20,000 British tourists from Sharm el-Sheikh, only hand luggage was allowed, the luggage was not transported in the respective aircraft, but by courier. From November 6th, all flights from Russia to Egypt were also suspended. Five days later, over half of the 80,000 Russians had been flown out, and their luggage was also transported separately in cargo planes. On November 6, 2015, Russia decided to suspend air traffic to Egypt, and since November 14, 2015, the Egyptian airline Egypt Air has been banning flights to Russia. In May 2016, the Russian government was prepared to resume air traffic between Russia and Egypt, subject to certain conditions. Egypt invested $ 43 million in security at Terminal 2 at Cairo Airport , from where flights to and from Russia will be handled in the future.

Political reactions

The Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov , Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov and the head of the aviation authority Alexander Neradko traveled to Sinai. According to a report on state television, the Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail was on the way to the crash site.

After the Russian secret service suspected an explosive attack on November 17, 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to find those responsible for the attack and punish them.

Representation in the media

In the Canadian television series Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit , the accident was re-enacted in the eighth episode of season 17 as Terror over Egypt (German title).

Trivia

This is the second incident in three years in which a Russian aircraft with flight number 9268 crashed, the first being Red Wings Airlines flight 9268 .

Web links

Commons : Kogalymavia Flight 9268  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian plane crashes in Sinai - all 224 occupants dead
  2. ↑ a b Pilot reported technical problems. tagesschau.de, October 31, 2015, archived from the original on November 2, 2015 ; accessed on October 31, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b Aircraft Database - EI-ETJ. In: Airframes.org. Retrieved October 31, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Egypt: Russian plane with 224 occupants crashed in Sinai. Spiegel Online , October 31, 2015, accessed October 31, 2015 .
  5. ↑ a b Russian plane crashed into Egypt - 224 dead. faz.net , October 31, 2015, accessed October 31, 2015 .
  6. ↑ a b c d Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  7. ↑ Sinai plane crash: How tragedy unfolded. In: bbc.com. Retrieved November 17, 2015 .
  8. ↑ a b Crash A321: Russia offers $ 50 million reward , Focus Online , quote: "The Russian secret service has informed Vladimir Putin: A bomb on board led to the crash of the Airbus A321 over the Sinai Peninsula.", November 17, 2015
  9. ↑ Egypt's Sisi says terrorists behind Russian plane crash. In: xinhua.com. Retrieved January 4, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Metrojet Russia EI-ETJ (Airbus A321 - MSN 663) (Ex F-OHMP TC-OAE). airfleets.net, accessed October 31, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Crash of an Airbus A321-231 near Hasna: 224 killed. (No longer available online.) Baaa-acro.com, October 31, 2015, archived from the original on February 5, 2016 ; accessed on November 1, 2015 .
  12. ^ ASN Aircraft accident Airbus A321-231 EI-ETJ Hasna, North Sinai. Aircraft history. In: aviation-safety.net. October 31, 2015, accessed November 4, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Full flight history for flight 7K9268. flightradar24.com, accessed October 31, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt's Sinai, no survivors. ahram.org.eg, October 31, 2015, accessed October 31, 2015 .
  15. ^ Passenger and crew list of the Kogalymavia flight 9268 on the official website of the Russian MTschS (Russian); Retrieved November 4, 2015
  16. ↑ No survivors after plane crash. In: zeit.de. October 31, 2015, accessed November 26, 2017 .
  17. ^ Accident in the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt) to the Airbus A321-231, registered EI-ETJ, flight 7K-9268, on Saturday 31 October 2015. Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile, accessed on October 31, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Investigator: Passenger plane broke apart in midair. Deutsche Welle , November 1, 2015, accessed on November 1, 2015 .
  19. ↑ Russian jet "broke up in the air" over Egypt: official. In: CBS News. cbsnews.com, November 1, 2015, accessed November 8, 2015 .
  20. ^ Egyptian investigators refuse to speculate on bomb theory despite black box 'noise'. (No longer available online.) Accident Investigation Committee Of Metrojet KGL-9268, Nov. 7, 2015, archived from the original on Nov. 17, 2015 ; Retrieved November 9, 2015 .
  21. ^ No evidence of terrorism in Sinai plane crash, Egypt says. The Guardian, December 14, 2015, accessed December 16, 2015 .
  22. ↑ Terrorist attack on flight 7K9268 in Egypt? (alleged letter of confession on Twitter in full), investigativ.welt.de from November 1, 2015 , accessed on November 7, 2015
  23. ↑ Islamic State claims responsibility for Russian plane crash in Egypt , reuters.com from October 31, 2015 , accessed on November 7, 2015
  24. ↑ Flygplan uppges ha kraschat över Sinai. expressen.se, October 31, 2015, accessed October 31, 2015 (Swedish).
  25. ↑ Lufthansa flies around the Sinai Peninsula "for safety reasons". In: FOCUS Online . October 31, 2015, accessed November 5, 2015 .
  26. ↑ Crash over the Sinai. US satellite records heat flash. In: n24.de. November 3, 2015, accessed November 8, 2015 .
  27. ↑ Black box evaluated: explosion in the engine is said to be responsible for the Airbus crash. In: Berliner Kurier. berliner-kurier.de, accessed on November 4, 2015 .
  28. ↑ Crash en Egypt: la piste de l'attentat jugée sérieuse. In: France November 2, 6, 2015, accessed November 6, 2015 .
  29. ^ INFO FRANCE 2. Crash dans le Sinaï: l'explosion n'était pas d'origine accidentelle, indiquent les boîtes noires. In: France November 2, 6, 2015, accessed November 6, 2015 .
  30. ↑ Crash of the Russian machine, probably a terrorist attack . Deutsche Welle, November 8, 2015.
  31. ↑ Sharm el-Sheikh flights shutdown triggered when British spies uncovered Isil bomb plot after Russian air crash. In: The Guardian. November 17, 2015, accessed November 17, 2015 .
  32. ↑ Russia is offering a $ 50 million reward. November 17, 2015, accessed November 17, 2015 .
  33. ↑ Exclusive: EgyptAir mechanic suspected in Russian plane crash. In: Reuters. January 29, 2016, accessed January 30, 2016 .
  34. ↑ Isis plane attack: Egypt admits 'terrorists' downed Russian Metrojet flight from Sharm el-Sheikh for first time , The Independent, February 24, 2016
  35. ↑ https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/14/what-really-happened-to-egyptair-flight-804
  36. ↑ Holger Dambeck: Flight recorder data: Difficult search for the black box. In: Spiegel Online . June 2, 2009, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  37. ↑ EgyptAir flight 804: plane crashed after a fire in the cockpit? In: Spiegel Online . July 7, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  38. ↑ British and Americans suspect the bomb as the cause of the crash. Tagesschau , November 5, 2015, archived from the original on November 6, 2015 ; Retrieved November 5, 2015 .
  39. ↑ Sharm el-Sheikh flights shutdown triggered when British spies uncovered Isil bomb plot after Russian air crash. In: The Telegraph. November 5, 2015, accessed November 5, 2015 .
  40. ↑ Airlines to return British holidaymakers from Egypt without luggage , The Guardian, November 6, 2015
  41. ↑ 60 percent of Russian tourists returned from Egypt , September 11, 2015
  42. ↑ No flight to Egypt: The bankrupt vulture circles over the travel agencies , RBTH, November 10, 2015
  43. ↑ Medvedev: Terrorist attack could cause the A321 to crash , RBTH, November 11, 2015
  44. ↑ Airbus crash: Russia stops all flights to Egypt. In: Spiegel Online. November 6, 2015, accessed November 6, 2015 .
  45. ↑ Ch-aviation : EgyptAir banned from Russia over Metrojet crash (English), accessed on November 17, 2015
  46. ↑ aerotelegraph.com - Russia wants to allow flights to Egypt again , accessed on January 9, 2017
  47. ↑ Ticker on the crash: IS claims to have shot down the plane. hna.de, October 31, 2015, accessed on October 31, 2015 .
  48. ↑ Путин пообещал найти и покарать организаторов теракта в А321 . Interfax.ru, November 17, 2015 (Russian; translation of the title: 'Putin promised to find and punish the organizers of the terrorist attack on the A321').