The cause of the crash of the aircraft A321. The crash of the A321 aircraft of the Kogalymavia company became the largest in the history of Russian aviation

On the morning of October 31, 2015, the largest disaster in the history of domestic aviation occurred. The plane of the Russian company Kogalymavia took off from the Egyptian Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, but was blown up by terrorists over the Sinai Peninsula. 224 people on board died - children, wives, husbands, fathers, mothers... Many of them, before departure, left photographs and notes on their pages on social networks, which involuntarily became farewell notes.

The Airbus A321 airliner operated charter flight 7K-9268 on the route Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg. 23 minutes after takeoff, radio contact with the crew was lost, and the airliner itself disappeared from radar. Egyptian search teams discovered the wreckage of the plane near the town of Nehel. All people on board the plane, including 25 children and 7 crew members, were killed.

The cause of the tragedy, according to the Russian FSB, was a terrorist attack for which the international terrorist group “Islamic State”, banned in the Russian Federation, took responsibility. As experts later established, the improvised explosive device was planted in the oversized baggage compartment at the rear of the plane. The explosion led to the complete destruction of the aircraft. By the time the fragments of the aircraft hit the ground, almost all the people on board had already died from barotrauma.

Most of the passengers on the tragic flight were residents of North-West Russia, mainly from St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions. Also on board were four citizens of Ukraine and one citizen of Belarus.

The people who boarded the liner were young and full of vitality. Some of them celebrated their wedding anniversary in Egypt, others decided to celebrate their birthday in the southern country. Many went to the resort with their entire families, with children. And so they died - all together. There were also those who decided to go on holiday abroad for the first time. And this trip was the last...

“I know I won’t come back”

Spouses Olga and Yuri Shein celebrated ten years of marriage in Egypt - the whole family flew with three children: 11-year-old Zhenya, 10-year-old Leroy and 3-year-old Nastya. The last photo posted on social networks showed the father of the family walking up the plane. In his arms is his daughter Nastya. The caption under the photo “We are flying home” was made 11 minutes before departure. They never returned home...

The young Gromov family from the city of Gatchina, Leningrad Region, died in the disaster. The youngest passenger on the flight was their daughter, ten-month-old Darina. Before flying out on vacation, the baby's mother published a photo of the child standing near the glass at the St. Petersburg airport and carefully watching the planes. “The main passenger,” Tatyana Gromova touchingly signed a photo of her baby. It was this photograph, published by many world publications, that became a visual symbol of the A321 tragedy. The baby’s body was found by rescuers 30-35 km from the epicenter of the crash.

Vladimir and Victoria Golenkov went to the sea with their little daughter Diana. She was only four years old. Footage of a happy family life was published on Vladimir’s page on the social network.

Among the dead was the deputy head of the city of Pskov and deputy of the Pskov City Duma Alexander Kopylov. He gave the trip to his wife for her birthday. Together they died...

“I’m still waiting for my daughter”

Irina Evgenievna found strength and told us about that terrible day when she lost her only daughter, Elvira Voskresenskaya. The 28-year-old girl worked at the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in St. Petersburg as an inspector in the supervisory activities department. I went on vacation with my friend. Irina Zakharova learned about the plane crash from her brother when she and her husband were going to the airport to meet their daughter.

In the morning, completely calmly, without any bad thoughts, we began to get ready for the dacha, which is located not far from Pulkovo. Just in time to meet you at the airport on the way home. Our daughter’s husband could not meet us - he is also an employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and that day he had just taken duty for a day. When we had already reached the ring road, my brother called me to clarify whether my daughter had arrived or not. I said that she was arriving today at 12 o'clock. He says: “What flight is she flying?” I say I don't know which one. He, apparently not yet assessing the situation, says: “You know, some plane disappeared from radar over Sinai. Where is she flying from? I say from Sharm el-Sheikh. He says: “You know, some plane that took off from Sharm el-Sheikh disappeared from the radar”...

I don't even want to remember what happened. It’s just that at the first moment there were thoughts in my head that this was not her plane. Yes, this cannot be! This is not her flight. There is more than one flight, and it’s not about her at all. Then I called her husband, since he also works in the Ministry of Emergency Situations and knows everything. Then those terrible hours of waiting, which turned into days. My daughter's husband was there from the very beginning to the end - he was replaced at work. I couldn’t go to Pulkovo - I don’t even know how I survived. My dad went and took a DNA test.

Actually, I still don't believe it. It seems to me that this is not about her, she is somewhere and simply cannot return yet.

The first moment when the lists appeared, she was not on them... It’s hard to remember. Even though we knew that our loved ones were on that plane, every day we waited for news whether we were on the lists of those identified. This is the worst thing when, having lost a loved one, you cannot even bury the remains so that you can come and venerate them.

Hope faded away gradually, but it did not fade away, I am still waiting for my daughter. It seems to me that someday this terrible dream will end. Therefore, when I do something now, it seems to me that this is not about us, not about our family, not about our daughter. This simply cannot be, she could not leave us with dad.

She was very caring and worried about our health. She didn’t even want to live separately from us when she got married. She had a dream to build her own house, in one half of which we would live, in the other - she and her husband.

She was very positive and goal oriented. She was always in a hurry, always on the move, driving quickly. Speed ​​in general meant a lot to her. She was always late for something because she had a lot of plans. I wanted to master everything and as quickly as possible. I took a motorcycle driving course. She and my dad had a dream, secret from me: they wanted to buy a good motorcycle for both of them.

She was feminine, but with a masculine character. She never whined and tried to hide her weaknesses. She was strong. And I tried to help everyone as much as I could. Relatives came to us from Donetsk, from the demarcation line. With three children, they fled from this war. She took upon herself all the care of these children. Just before flying on vacation, she became the godmother of the little girl Anastasia. She said that now she will also have to think about her children. I really wanted to have my own children. This was her dream because two years ago she lost her twins due to premature birth.

But then she planned to entrust the children to me and work - she wanted to reach certain heights in her profession. She told her father: “Dad, you are the major, and I will be the general!” She liked her job. It’s my dad and I’s pride that we raised her to be a real person.

“We have a lot of caring people”

The first emotions of people who have lost their loved ones are shock, tears, and non-acceptance of what happened. Then - identification in the morgue of the few who could be identified visually. Then there is the painfully long wait for the results of DNA testing of those whose remains could not be identified. For some relatives, this nightmare is still not over - six victims of the disaster have still not been identified. Their relatives hope for the results of the latest genetic examinations.

In total there are about 200 unidentified body fragments.

“The Egyptian services have remains that were found during the laying out of the plane. When they are transferred to the Investigative Committee, a genetic examination will be carried out. We are waiting for its results to understand whether we have the right to bury the existing remains,” Zakharova explained. The relatives of the victims intend to bury all unidentified remains in a mass grave.

Irina Evgenievna noted the support of caring townspeople in the first mournful days; human solidarity continues to be felt to this day.

“This deserves a huge amount of gratitude. In the first days, we saw how people rallied and worried. Until now, those who knew our dead relatives are always with us. The graves are always buried in flowers, and candles are burning, people come constantly. It is great happiness that we have many caring people. I think it was stressful for everyone at first. Anyone could find themselves in this situation. At Pulkovo, a plane takes off and lands every 10-15 minutes. So many people use this type of transport every day, so many people use other modes of transport. Terrorism has no borders. At that moment, people were shocked, and everyone tried this situation on themselves. Therefore, everyone was very scared and in pain,” added Irina Zakharova.

According to her, the relatives of the victims communicated on social networks in the first months to exchange the slightest new information. After most of the funeral was completed, people gathered to decide what they planned to do in memory of their loved ones. At the very first meeting, the idea of ​​​​building a temple was expressed. It will be built at the intersection of Matisov and the Dudergof Canal on the territory of the Baltic Pearl microdistrict in the Krasnoselsky district of St. Petersburg. The future rector of the Church of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica, in memory of the victims of the A321 disaster, Father Sergei lost his friend in this tragedy.

As Irina Zakharova says,

“the temple will contain a small atrium, where the names of our loved ones, possibly photographs, will be placed”

“A lot of children were left without parents. They will be able to come there. We want to build a house for 224 souls and their relatives. So that this house can live a full life. This will be the best memory of our loved ones. Because it will include not only the memory of them, but also care for the living,” added the interlocutor of the REGNUM news agency.

Exactly a year ago, on October 31, 2015, the most massive plane crash in Russia in terms of the number of victims occurred. Then in the north of the Sinai Peninsula an A321 plane of the Russian airline Kogalymavia. There were 217 passengers on board, including 24 children, and seven crew members. They all died. Russian authorities have recognized the incident as a terrorist attack, but the international investigation has not yet been completed.

On October 31, an A321 aircraft of the Russian airline Kogalymavia was operating a charter flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The airliner took off at 5:50 am and disappeared from radar 23 minutes later. On the same day, Egyptian government search teams discovered the wreckage of a destroyed plane near the city of Nehel in the northern Sinai Peninsula. All 224 people on board died, including 219 Russians, four citizens of Ukraine and one native of Belarus.

Causes of the A321 crash

The international investigation, led by Egyptian aviation authorities, is not yet over. Representatives of Russia, France, Germany, Ireland and the USA take part in it.

Western media were the first to report that a terrorist attack could have occurred on board the A321, shortly after the plane crash, citing their sources in the intelligence services and officials. From these publications it followed that the US and British authorities considered the version of a terrorist attack to be the most likely. However, Moscow publicly distanced itself from it for a long time, calling the version of the terrorist attack premature and calling to wait for the official results of the investigation. And only on November 6, a decision was made to suspend air traffic with Egypt until the causes of the A321 crash were clarified and to evacuate the Russians there.

Officially, the FSB terrorist attack that occurred over Sinai only two and a half weeks after the disaster, on November 17. According to the department, an improvised explosive device went off during the flight. Vladimir Putin, at a meeting of the Security Council, find the organizers of the crash “anywhere on the planet” and destroy them.

However, even after these statements, the Egyptian authorities continued to insist that the most likely cause of the disaster was a technical problem. And only in February 2016, the country's President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi admitted that a terrorist attack had occurred on board the A321.

In September, the Kommersant newspaper, citing sources, reported that an international technical commission had established the exact location of the explosion on the plane. According to the publication, experts determined that the terrorists mined the oversized luggage compartment in the tail of the plane, hiding an explosive device between baby strollers and wicker furniture carried by tourists.

Russia and the CIA believe that the explosion on board was organized by Wilayat Sinai (until 2014 - Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), a cell of the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS) banned in Russia. The group claimed responsibility for the downing of A321: On November 18, 2015, the Islamic State's propaganda magazine, Dabiq, published a photo of an improvised explosive device made from a can of Schweppes soda. As stated in the article, this is the device that was activated on board the A321. In August 2016, the Egyptian military reported the murder of Wilayat Sinai leader Abu Duaa al-Ansari, suspected of organizing the terrorist attack.

Scandalous case

Relatives of those killed in the disaster have repeatedly complained about the progress of the investigation and the process of paying compensation. In December, lawyer Igor Trunov, on behalf of 35 relatives, filed a complaint with the Basmanny Court about the inaction of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. According to the lawyer, it was expressed in the fact that the Investigative Committee ignored two appeals from relatives. In one of them, they asked to be informed of the number of the criminal case, to be recognized as victims and to be acquainted with the materials of the investigation. Another complaint concerned Ingosstrakh. The appeal alleged that the company fraudulently obtains from relatives of the deceased statements limiting their right to go to court to obtain compensation. Ingosstrakh itself categorically rejected these accusations. And the claim against Bastrykin was rejected.

Consequences

After the crash of the Kogalymavia plane, Russia suspended air traffic with Egypt, and tour operators were prohibited from working in this direction. They have been waiting all year for the resumption of communications with the country, which for many years was one of the main resort destinations for Russians. According to the latest data, this may happen no earlier than December-January.

To resume flights, the Egyptian side needs to fulfill a number of airport security requirements (their full list has not been officially published). During the year, Russia repeatedly sent its specialists to Egypt for inspections at the airports of Cairo, Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, but each time there were violations. According to sources of the Al-Watan newspaper, quoted by TASS, “a number of Russian structures refuse to discuss the issue of resuming air traffic with Egypt until the results of the official investigation appear.”

With the closure of air traffic, Egypt suffered significant losses. From the collapse of tourism, one of the country’s key industries (more than 11% of GDP until November 2015), Egypt’s budget, according to Reuters, lost more than three billion dollars.

The crash of the Russian airbus and the subsequent cessation of flights to the Arab Republic led to problems for Kogalymavia itself and the associated tour operator Brisco, which was the customer of flight 9268. The case of declaring the carrier bankrupt has been dragging on since the spring of 2015, the next meeting will take place on November 10. In March, Rosaviatsia limited Kogalymavia’s operator’s certificate and deprived it of access to 13 international destinations.

The organizer of the flight, tour operator Brisco, suspended operations on August 2 until it repaid debts to clients and agencies. As reported on the Brisco website, after the closure of flights to Egypt and Turkey, the company suffered “colossal financial and economic losses.”

The biggest disaster in the history of our civil aviation occurred this morning. 224 people - passengers and crew of the flight Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg - crashed in Egypt, on the Sinai Peninsula. People were flying back from vacation with their families. 27 children among the dead. The Egyptian Prime Minister said that 129 bodies have been found so far. Experts are working on a "black box".

This is the first evidence of a plane crash in Sinai - photographs published by an Egyptian television channel. The first - for the whole day. Before this, there was not a single photograph, not a single video recording, even the shortest one. Towards evening, the first military helicopters carrying the remains of disaster victims from Sinai landed at the Egyptian Air Force Kabrit air base, a little over a hundred kilometers from Cairo. Ambulances - a long line of cars with lights flashing - transport them from the airbase to the Cairo morgue. Before nightfall, the bodies of almost all the dead were delivered to the Egyptian capital. From there they will be sent to Russia, to St. Petersburg.

“Since this tragic incident, our countries have been working in close contact. The President and the government of Egypt expressed condolences in this regard and offered to do everything possible to, firstly, conduct a joint investigation, and secondly, help in transporting the bodies of our citizens to their homeland ", said the Russian Ambassador to Egypt Sergei Kirpichenko.

Airbus Flight 9268 flew for only 23 minutes. Much longer - several hours after it disappeared from radar - conflicting information about the fate of the liner came. It was not immediately possible to create a more or less clear picture of what happened in the skies over Sinai.

Sharm el-Sheikh airport, 5 hours 51 minutes local time (6.51 Moscow time). The Kogalymavia airbus, a charter airline also known under the Metrojet brand, has taken off and is heading for St. Petersburg. There were almost no empty seats left. An experienced crew commander - 12 thousand flight hours, a third of which were on an Airbus 321. Almost immediately after takeoff, he discovered some problems on board, contacted the ground, reported the malfunctions, and asked for permission to land at the nearest airfield. At this point the session ended, and the Airbus did not make contact again. By 7:14 am Moscow time, the plane was lost by radar.

"At 7.14 I was supposed to establish a communication session with Larnaca, the Republic of Cyprus. Radio communication did not take place with the plane, it was lost. The aircraft's mark also disappeared from the radio radars of air traffic control services. There were 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board the plane, mostly citizens Russia," said Sergei Izvolsky, press secretary of the Federal Air Transport Agency.

Of the 217 passengers, 27 were children. Families were returning from a holiday in Sharm.

Judging by data from the Internet resource Flytradar, the last thing the earth recorded was that the plane dropped about two kilometers in altitude a minute before disappearing from the screens. The speed also dropped sharply: from almost 750 kilometers per hour, first to 350, and then to 170 kilometers per hour! This is the last thing the transponder transmitted, and these numbers are beyond critical. A large airliner simply cannot stay in the air at such a low speed. Moreover, according to witnesses who observed the crash of the Airbus, its engine seemed to be on fire.

The plane had already crashed - it fell in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, 35 kilometers from the city of El-Arish, and the press and news agencies continued to pour out contradictory messages. Someone immediately declared the plane crashed. Then information came that he allegedly got in touch again. Then all the confusing references to Egyptian dispatchers appeared, who allegedly claimed that they had handed over the Airbus to their Turkish colleagues. But this information was not confirmed either.

Closer to noon, it became clear that the plane did not leave Egyptian airspace. The prime minister of this country canceled all trips, called an emergency meeting and announced that the plane had crashed after all. A state of emergency has been declared in Sinai. And finally, in the afternoon, it was officially announced: the wreckage had been found.

“We have sent a working group of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to the scene of the crash. It will conduct an investigation, this is a standard procedure. Of course, we are in constant contact with the Russian ambassador,” said Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail.

Those who were the first to see the crash site with their own eyes conveyed news that finally buried hope: the liner was completely destroyed, there was no chance of finding survivors. After another half hour, rescuers began to remove the bodies of the dead from the rubble. Search efforts were complicated by the difficult mountainous terrain and the fact that the fallen airliner was literally scattered around the area.

An Egyptian security officer described a terrible scene to Reuters: "I am witnessing a tragic scene. There are many dead bodies lying on the ground, many of them fastened with seat belts in their seats. The plane is split into two parts. The first - a small tail part - is burned, the second - the large front part crashed into the rock. We have already recovered 100 bodies, the rest are still under the rubble. We heard dozens of phones ringing that belonged to the dead, our officers collected them in a bag."

The crashed Airbus 321 was in operation for about 19 years - this is quite acceptable in civil aviation; another question is how the plane was maintained. This particular aircraft served for several years in airlines in the countries of the Middle East region: Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria. The Russian Kogalymavia acquired it in 2012.

Experts are looking into the causes of the tragedy, but photographs of the people remain. Photos of those who flew from Egypt, returned from vacation on flight 9268 and, before takeoff, managed to leave publications on social networks with the following caption, for example: “Hello, Peter, goodbye, Egypt. We are flying home.”

Exactly two years ago, on October 31, 2015, the most massive air crash in terms of the number of deaths occurred in the entire history of Russia. On this day, an Airbus A321-231 airliner of a Russian airline took off from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and headed for St. Petersburg. The crew of the airliner was operating a charter flight and was taking Russian tourists home after a vacation.

The plane climbed calmly along the Gulf of Aqaba and would soon cross the Sinai Peninsula to enter European airspace. However, at the 23rd minute of the flight, communication between ground services and the aircraft was interrupted. It soon became clear that the Airbus A321-231 crashed to the ground in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula and was completely destroyed. The wreckage of the aircraft was scattered over 13 km. All 224 people on board the plane were killed.

At the time of the death of the airliner, there were seven crew members and 217 passengers. Of these, four were Ukrainians, one was Belarusian, and the rest were Russian citizens. Among them was the deputy head of Pskov and a deputy of the local legislative assembly. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the oldest passenger was 77 years old, and

the youngest victim of the tragedy was a 10-month-old.

Shortly before the tragic incident, her mother Tatyana published a photo of the child on a page on the VKontakte social network. The photo shows the girl standing on the windowsill of an airport window with her back to the viewer. She looks at the planes on the ground. She captioned the photo: “The most important passenger.”

This photograph was later circulated by many Russian and world media and became a symbol of the Sinai disaster. Diana's mother and father also died as a result of the plane crash.

The Russian President, as well as the leaders of many countries in Europe and the world, expressed condolences to the victims. The day after the plane crashed, mourning was declared in Russia. However, the French published three cartoons on the topic of the disaster, which caused a negative reaction from the Russian Federation and. In response, the French Foreign Ministry stated that “in France, journalists freely express their opinions,” while “it does not always coincide with the official position of the French authorities.”

“There were no questions about the car”

Soon after the incident, various versions of what happened began to be put forward. Almost immediately, the hypothesis that the plane crashed due to a pilot error was dismissed. The crashed Airbus was controlled by experienced pilots, and the crew commander, 48-year-old Valery Nemov, had flown over 12 thousand hours, of which more than 3860 were on the Airbus A321.

However, details of the aircraft’s operation soon became known, and it turned out that it was far from new.

It was released in the spring of 1997 and made its first flight on May 9. After this, the aircraft was transferred to the American company International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), which by May 27 leased it to the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines (MEA), which had owned it for six years. On June 2, 2003, already under tail number TC-OAE, the airliner was leased to the Turkish airline Onur Air. This structure later sub-leased the aircraft to Saudi Arabian Airlines, and from July 30 to September 29, 2010 to Syrian Cham Wings Airlines. By the spring of 2012, the TC-OAE board returned to ILFC, and by March 30, 2012, it was leased to the Russian Kogalymavia.

On April 30 of the same 2012, it was bought from ILFC by the Dutch airline AerCap, which re-delivered this airliner to the Russian Kogalymavia. The Russian airline, in turn, has already been operating under the Metrojet brand since May 1, 2012.

During the long service of the aircraft, an unpleasant incident occurred from a safety point of view. On November 16, 2001, he was flying passenger flight ME 306 on the Beirut-Cairo route and during landing at the airport in the Egyptian capital, the pilots raised his nose too high, causing the tail to drop so low that it hit the ground. None of the 88 people on board the plane (81 passengers and 7 crew members) were injured then, and the airliner itself returned to passenger routes after undergoing repairs. This information was confirmed by representatives of Kogalymavia, assuring that the aircraft passed all the necessary checks and technical tests on time.

On the eve of departure, the ill-fated flight underwent maintenance, and the receiving crew had no questions about the car.

Interrupted message

An investigation into the causes of the tragedy was launched by several large structures from around the world, since Egypt is a very popular tourist destination among citizens of many countries. The investigation was carried out by the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Russian Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Bureau of France, the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, the Irish Air Accident Investigation Department, and the US National Transportation Safety Board.

At the same time, in accordance with international law, general management was carried out by Egyptian investigators, since the incident occurred in the airspace of that country. Already on November 1, the previously found “black boxes” from the lost airliner were deciphered. In the meantime, he opened criminal cases under Articles 263 and 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of traffic safety rules and operation of railway, air, sea and inland water transport and the subway” and “Production, storage, transportation or sale of goods and products, performance of work or provision of services that do not meet security requirements").

The UK and German airlines also interrupted flights with the Egyptian state, and France, the Netherlands and Belgium warned their citizens against flying to Sharm el-Sheikh. In addition, it announced the cancellation of night flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.

Customers not identified

Meanwhile, the victims in the disaster case filed a class action lawsuit against the tour operator, Kogalymavia airline and insurance companies for a total amount of about €1.4 billion. This is the first example of a class action lawsuit for such a serious amount in Russian history.

And although the involvement of Kogalymavia employees in the incident over Sinai is not confirmed by facts, in the spring of 2016 it banned domestic and international flights of this airline.

According to the most frequently voiced version, the Sinai division of the terrorist “” (both organizations are banned in Russia) was behind the terrorist attack. Its members took responsibility for this crime shortly after the fact.

However, there are other points of view. A number of experts believe that the Qatari organization Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (a cell of the Islamic State banned in Russia) could be behind the terrorist attack. The United States also announced its trace in the tragedy.

Be that as it may, after the death of the plane, Russian aviation began to intensify air strikes against targets of various Islamist organizations in Syria. For the first time, Russian strategic aviation was involved in raids on IS targets and other extremists.

However, the names of the specific perpetrators of the terrorist attack have not yet been established.

And on October 28, 2017, a monument to the victims of the disaster was unveiled at the Serafimovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg. In addition, among St. Petersburg residents there is an idea to erect a monument to 10-month-old Darina Gromova, which a famous sculptor has already promised to make for free.

A motley crowd of tourists, a vibrant underwater world that attracts divers from all over the world - all this attracts travelers. Russians were eager to go there as if they were going to a second dacha: at least a week to rest from work and bask in the sun. Whole families flew until the plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 forced the entire country to shudder.

Tragic accident

A tourist group from the Brisco company was returning on a charter flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. Despite the early morning (departure at 5.50 local time), the passengers were in excellent spirits. They posted pictures of their successful vacation on social networks. It was Saturday, and on Monday many had to plunge into work; some had work, others had to study.

The Airbus A321-231 EI-ETJ airliner, which arrived from Samara, took 217 passengers on board. They and seven crew members had to be in the Northern capital by 12 noon, where many had relatives and friends waiting at the airport. Having reached a given altitude of 9400 meters in 23 minutes, at a speed of 520 km/h the aircraft suddenly disappeared from the radar. At 6.15 (7.15 Moscow) the plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula near El-Arish airport - the hottest spot in Egypt, where government troops were confronted by Al-Qaeda Islamists.

Versions of the tragedy

Those meeting flight 9268 at Pulkovo Airport anxiously watched the board, which displayed the information: “Arrival delayed.” And by evening, the whole country knew that the wreckage of the aircraft that had disappeared from radar had been discovered by the Egyptian authorities. Scattered over a length of 13 kilometers, with the tail section torn off, they were shown on television, which gave rise to many versions of experts about the possible causes of the disaster. Three were considered the most reliable:

• Technical problems associated either with engine failure or metal fatigue. In the tail section, traces of skin repairs were found after the aircraft touched the asphalt with its tail while landing at Cairo airport in 2001. The resulting microcrack could cause the destruction of the aircraft as it climbed.
• The plane crash in Egypt was caused by the crew's mistakes.
• Terrorist act.

The IAC commission, headed by Egyptian representative Ayman al-Mukkadam, began working at the site of the tragedy. It included representatives of Russia, France, Germany, the USA and Ireland. After studying the evidence and decoding, the first two versions were found unfounded.

Aircraft

The A321 crash over the Sinai Peninsula was the largest in the history of Egypt and modern Russia. The airbus belonged to the Kogalymavia company, which underwent a thorough inspection. It was found that after the 2001 emergency, the aircraft was repaired in France at the manufacturer's plant, after which all the necessary tests were carried out. Over 18 years of operation, the airliner flew less than 50% of its service life (57,428 hours) and was in good condition. This is evidenced by weekly technical checks, the last of which was carried out on October 26, 2015. The flight recorders did not detect any system malfunction. Until the 23rd minute, the flight proceeded quite normally.

Crew

Forty-eight-year-old crew commander Valery Nemov is a graduate of SVAAULSH (Stavropol Military School). He is one of the few who, in the difficult 90s, retrained to fly on Airbuses since 2008, having 12 thousand flight hours, which testifies to his enormous experience. The second pilot also came from military aviation, being a veteran of the Chechen campaign. After retiring, Sergei Trukhachev retrained on the A321, having undergone training in the Czech Republic. I flew them for more than 2 years. The total flight time was 6 thousand hours. Both pilots were in good standing with their airline. Nemov was even called back from vacation prematurely to be sent on the infamous flight 9268.

Official version

Two weeks after the tragedy, the version of the terrorist attack was officially voiced by the head of the FSB during a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation. To support his words, he provided the following evidence:

1. American satellites recorded a thermal flash over Sinai during the disaster, which indicates an explosion occurred on board the plane.
2. The fuselage fragment has a hole with a diameter of about one meter. Its edges are curved outward. This indicates that the source of the explosion was inside.
3. When deciphering the recorder recording the negotiations, before the recording is interrupted, extraneous noise is heard, the nature of which can be attributed to a blast wave.
4. The plane crash in Egypt caused great public outcry. After a while, they not only admitted responsibility for the terrorist attack, but also posted a photo of an improvised explosive device (IED) on the pages of Dabig magazine.
5. Some of the victims had injuries indicating death from the consequences of the explosion (burns, tissue ruptures).
6. Traces of explosives - TNT molecules - were found in fragments of shrapnel, luggage and on the bodies of the victims.

The power of the explosion was estimated at 1 kilogram. The estimated location of the IED is the tail of the aircraft. For the blast wave moved forward, but the fracture of the fuselage prevented its further advancement.

Plane crash in Egypt: who is to blame?

After the Russian version appeared, it became known that 17 employees were detained at the Egyptian airport. The main question became one: “How did the IED get on board the airliner?” The FSB began studying the biographies of 34 passengers (11 men and 23 women) who had TNT molecules on their bodies. But official Egypt soon stated that there was no evidence for a clear statement about a terrorist attack on board the plane. None of the employees were actually arrested. Russian authorities have announced a $50 million reward for any information about the terrorists.

Only in February 2016 did the Egyptian President officially acknowledge the terrorist attack. It was discovered that the bomb was made from plastic, used to create military projectiles. It is powered by a clock mechanism. The plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 showed that the airport security system does not meet international standards. The IED could have gotten on board with the food supply company, through employees with access to the runway, or through carry-on luggage during baggage checks. The latest data is such that it was located in the cabin in the immediate vicinity of place 31A. All these facts led to a ban on the sale of holiday tours in Egypt.

Flight passengers

EI-ETJ - the last digits of the Airbus number. According to them, the aviators called the board “Juliet” among themselves, affectionately “Dzhulka”. On that tragic morning, she broke up three aviation marriages and killed a young steward who replaced a colleague who had quit due to a bad dream. It also took the lives of 217 passengers, 25 of whom were children. Those killed in a plane crash in Egypt are entire families, dozens of destroyed love stories, babies who will never grow up. Ten-month-old Darina Gromova was on this flight with her parents. Her mother posted her photo on a social network before the flight. A girl stands at the airport, facing the runway, and below is the signature: “Chief Passenger.” This picture became a symbol of the tragic flight from which no one was able to return.

Almost all passengers are Russians, 4 people are citizens of Ukraine, 1 is from Belarus. The majority are residents of St. Petersburg, although there are also representatives of other regions: Pskov, Novgorod, Ulyanovsk. Those killed in the plane crash in Egypt are people of various professions. Even while relatives were busy identifying the bodies, caring people were forming a collective portrait of the passengers, collecting information about them bit by bit. A wonderful gallery was created, where many good words were found about everyone.

Almost a year later

On July 31, Moscow and St. Petersburg held a rally in memory of those killed over the Sinai. Nine months passed: many relatives received compensation, identified and buried their loved ones, but the pain did not subside. On August 5, 2016, a message was received that forty-five militants led by Abu Dua al-Ansari, through whose fault the plane crash occurred in Egypt, were killed during a military operation near El-Arish. I really want to believe that something like this will never happen again!