The latest reasons for the crash of 321 vbulletin. Lost flight: what is known about the causes of the A321 crash a year later

CAIRO, 7 November. /Corr. TASS Dina Drunk/. In the last seconds of the recording of the flight recorders of the Russian A321 crashed in Egypt, an extraneous sound is heard. This was announced on Saturday by the head of the international commission to investigate the causes of the crash of the liner Ayman al-Mukaddam.

According to him, both "black boxes" were found on the first day of the crash, and the spread of debris is more than 12 km, but not all of them were found. "All found parts of the liner will be taken to Cairo to a safe place for further examination," he said.

"The initial interpretation of the parametric" black box "indicates that the takeoff was made at 03:50:06 UTC (06:50:06 Moscow time). Recording of the recorders stopped at 04:13:20 (07:13:20 Moscow time)," said he. "Thus, the duration from the moment of takeoff until the end of the recording was 23 minutes 14 seconds. The last record fixes the altitude at around 30888 feet (about 9414 meters), while the aircraft was in the climb stage."

According to him, the last recorded speed was 281 knots (about 521 km/h). "The autopilot was on until the end of the parametric recorder record," al-Muqaddam added.

As for the voice recorder, as the head of the investigation pointed out, "it was safely unloaded and the first decoding has already been done." "However, the team to study it is still in the process of deciphering, which will take some time," he said.

"Now it is established that noise is heard in the last seconds of the recording," said alt-Muqaddam. "The nature of this sound will be established in a special laboratory, where a spectral analysis will be carried out."

The day before, a source in the Russian mission at the commission said that the Russian side "has no confirmation of the fact of an explosion on board the aircraft."

All versions are being studied

As the head of the commission emphasized, the fragments found at the crash site in Sinai of the Russian A321 do not allow us to determine the nature of the impact and the exact causes of the disaster.

"The plane fell apart in the air, and so far it is not possible to say exactly about the reasons for this," he said. "The wreckage of the liner did not give us a clear picture of what happened."

All versions of the crash in Egypt of the Russian A321 are currently being studied, he said. "We have not yet come to a final conclusion," al-Muqaddam stressed.

Earlier, the director of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bortnikov, said that he considers it necessary to suspend Russian aviation flights to Egypt until the true causes of the tragedy with the A321 are established. "Until we determine the true causes of what happened, I consider it expedient to suspend Russian aviation flights to Egypt. This applies primarily to the tourist channel," Bortnikov said. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with the recommendation of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee. November 6 at 20.00 air traffic with Egypt was suspended.

Egypt asks to share information

Cairo called on all parties to share information on the crash of the Russian A321 in the sky over the Sinai Peninsula.

“There have been reports in the media, including citing official intelligence, that support a certain scenario,” he said. “In this regard, the commission says it has not received any information or evidence in this regard. We call on the sources of these reports provide comprehensive data to help us complete our mission."

"I said that we are ready to accept any information regarding the disaster from any side. We need any information ... And if any side wants to provide us with information, we have no objections," al-Muqaddam said.

"Now the commission is considering all possible scenarios of the incident, but so far we have not come to any conclusion," al-Muqaddam said.

The widespread data about the crash of the Russian plane, which we heard about, were not provided for review by the Egyptian intelligence services in detail. We expected that we would be given all the technical information on this issue. Foreign intelligence did not cooperate with Egypt in investigating the cause of the crash of the Russian airliner

Egyptian foreign minister

Sameh Shukri

Composition of the commission

According to al-Muqaddam, the investigation commission included 47 investigators. "Among them are 29 from Egypt, seven from the Russian Federation, six from France, two from Germany and three from Ireland (the country of registration of the aircraft)," he stressed. "In addition, among them are 10 Airbus technical advisers and one from IASA ( International Aviation Safety Association) A total of 58 experts."

According to al-Muqaddam, the investigators visited the crash site five times, "the last - last Wednesday." "Now the weather conditions are bad, which do not allow getting to the disaster area," he said. "As soon as it allows, they will go there again."

Ministry of Emergency Situations still remains in Sinai

A rescue team of the Russian Emergencies Ministry remains in the area of ​​the A321 plane crash on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

"Russian rescuers are assisting the specialists of the Interstate Aviation Committee, which is engaged in finding out the causes of the disaster," Alexander Agafonov, head of the EMERCOM task force in Sinai, head of the Department of Fire and Rescue Forces and military units, told TASS.

Disaster in Egypt

The aircraft A321 of the Russian airline "Kogalymavia", performing flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, crashed on October 31, about half an hour after departure, 100 km south of the administrative center of the province of North Sinai, the city of El Arish, near the village of El - Hasna. In total, the plane had 217 passengers and seven crew members, no one survived.

Continuation

Hot topic: state of emergency

Explosion on board most likely cause of A321 crash, Stratfor says

According to them, the explosive device was carried in hand luggage.

Experts from the private American intelligence and analytical company Stratfor believe that the most likely cause of the crash over Egypt was the smuggling of an explosive device on board an Airbus A321. This is stated in the published report of the organization.

“While we cannot completely rule out the possibility of an aircraft failure, such an explanation would be unusual given the circumstances of the crash,” the authors of the report say. According to them, most air crashes that occur due to aircraft equipment failure occur during takeoff and landing, when the mechanical load on the aircraft increases. "The plane rarely breaks down while flying at altitude," experts say.

The report also says that in the event of equipment failure, the pilots of the liner would most likely be able to maneuver, and the plane would fly without any catastrophic consequences before contact with the ground.

In addition, analysts consider it unlikely that the plane was shot down by militants of the Islamic State (the group is banned in the Russian Federation) from the Sinai Peninsula. “While militants in the area were able to use MANPADS to shoot down an Egyptian helicopter and fire missiles at an Israeli aircraft, Flight 9268 was out of range,” the report said.

"Given the improbability of alternative scenarios, it seems that the most likely explanation for the plane crash is the presence of an explosive device on board," the authors of the report conclude. In their opinion, the explosive device was carried in hand luggage.

Earlier, CBS News reported that an American satellite recorded in the infrared spectrum over the Sinai Peninsula at the time of the fall of the Russian A321 in Egypt.

On the morning of October 31, the Russian passenger plane Airbus A321 of the Kogalymavia airline crashed over the Sinai Peninsula during a flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. All 224 people on board the plane were killed. On Saturday, the A321 flight recorders were found at the crash site, and on Sunday experts in Egypt began deciphering them. The IAC reported that the airliner collapsed in the air.

Now close attention is paid to the results of processing black boxes. It is reported that both were found, but one, where the pilots' conversations are contained, is damaged, special care is required in the process of extracting data. Previously unnamed sources informed that the conversations of the pilots did not indicate any abnormal situation, say, technical malfunctions, although some strange noises were mentioned, but there is no specific information on this yet.

Apparently, the search at the crash site is nearing completion. The wreckage of the aircraft and the remains of the bodies of the dead are scattered over a large area. More than 30 square kilometers have already been carefully surveyed, as stated, if necessary, the impact area will be checked down to a centimeter. By the end of today, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Vladimir Puchkov, set the task of completing the work as planned.

Alexander Agafonov, Director of the Department of Fire, Rescue and Special Forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation: “The main efforts today were focused on hard-to-reach areas, including with the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle. In the morning after the departure of the MAK, an additional decision was made to further examine the large burnt wreckage of the aircraft.

The British authorities, without waiting for the end of the investigation, made their hasty conclusions and took action. The version of an explosive device was put forward among others from the very beginning of the investigation. The authorities of Egypt and Russia asked to wait until the end of the investigation. So far, there has been no reliable evidence of sabotage.

Egyptian authorities categorically state that it is impossible to carry a bomb on board, they say, Sharm el-Sheikh airport is famous for its reliability. The Egyptians reacted with displeasure to reports from the United States and Great Britain about inside the "Islamic State" (the organization is banned in the Russian Federation), which indicate an explosive device.

Suspicions, according to the media, fall primarily on service personnel who could be bribed or recruited. The British are already taking concrete measures in this regard. Immediately after the disaster they for their airlines from Egypt to the UK. As a result of an urgent discussion, it was decided to stop flights from the UK to the Egyptian resort, and citizens of the country were advised not to go there.

Philip Hammond, British Foreign Secretary: “At a meeting of the emergency committee chaired by the Prime Minister, we carefully studied the information about the crash of the Russian airliner in the Sinai and came to the conclusion that an explosive device on board was most likely the cause of the crash, therefore we are canceling all flights of national carriers in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Every year, 900,000 British people spend their holidays in Egypt. At least 2,000 people from the United Kingdom are now stuck in the resorts, and it is not yet known how they should get to their homeland. As transmits NTV columnist Vladimir Kondratiev, British specialists are checking Egyptian security measures on the spot. It is reported that the former director of the airport in Sharm el-Sheikh has been removed from his post. True, he remained to help the new leader.

Egypt, which employs a lot of people in the tourism industry, it is important to preserve the image. The Russian media reported that so far the investigators have not found any traces of a mine-explosive nature, so the version of the explosion remains just one of the versions.

To date, 58 victims of the crash have been identified, including all crew members. . Genetic examinations will take a long time, perhaps the process will drag on for months.

Today in St. Petersburg, the funeral of the victims, who have been 100% identified, begins. Authorities are handing over identified bodies to loved ones. Also from today, cash payments to the families of the victims begin.

All indications are that a technical problem led to the crash of the A321, said Egyptian government spokesman Husam al-Kawish.

“Artificial satellites at the disposal of the United States and Russia have ruled out the possibility of a catastrophe due to a terrorist attack. Everything indicates that the plane crashed due to a technical problem inside, ”RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.

Recall, the Airbus-321 aircraft of the Kogalymavia company, which took off early Saturday morning from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, over the Sinai Peninsula. There were 217 passengers and seven crew members on board. They all died. The cause of the crash is not yet clear.

According to some reports, the destruction of the aircraft occurred while still in the air. The Russian transport departments call it unlikely. No traces of explosives were found on the fragments of the aircraft.

On Tuesday, an Egyptian medical examiner who participated in the inspection said the nature of the damage to the bodies of the A321 passengers on board prior to impact with the ground.

However, a source at the Center for Forensic Medical Examination said that a preliminary examination of mine-explosive traces on the bodies of the victims of the crash.

A Pentagon official said that there was a thermal flare in the sky at the time of the crash of the Russian airliner. The Pentagon spokesman also confirmed that the airliner "disintegrated at a very high altitude", and from the data received from the satellite it follows that at the time of the flight "there was some kind of explosion."

Later that day, a representative of the Interstate Aviation Committee said that the information that the A321 aircraft had a thermal flash before the crash.

On the night of Monday to Tuesday, CBS News reported that at the time of the fall of the A321 Kogalymavia aircraft, an American satellite had a thermal flash over Sinai. As the TV channel clarified, one of the reasons could be a bomb, but an explosion in the fuel tank or engine as a result of a mechanical failure is also possible.

Unofficial sources reported that from the recording of the flight crew’s conversations with the controllers, it follows that the situation on board remained four minutes before the aircraft disappeared from the radar, the crew conducted normal negotiations with the controllers, nothing indicated any problems on board, the crew also did not report them. The moment of the disappearance of the liner from the radar screens on the recording is preceded by sounds uncharacteristic for a regular flight.

Head of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin on Tuesday. The Commission for the Investigation of the Causes of the Air Crash in full force at the crash site, where they examined the wreckage of the aircraft.

The management of Kogalymavia on Monday came up with its own version of the cause of the A321 crash in Egypt: the equipment was in good order, the crew was professional, the incident that occurred in 2001 did not affect the aircraft, the liner collapsed from external influences. This version, however, was refuted by the Egyptian commission of inquiry. Experts are now discussing the two versions as approximately equally likely.

Kogalymavia CEO Alexander Snagovsky said on Monday that he believes the reason for the Russian Airbus-321 in the Sinai Peninsula is external influence. According to him, such an aircraft as the A321 could not have been destroyed in the air due to the failure of any technical systems. The only cause of destruction in the air, according to him, may be mechanical impact, RIA Novosti reports.

"No fatigue crack can develop to a critical size"

At the same time, Snagovsky emphasized that Kogalymavia excludes the human factor and the technical factor as versions of the plane crash.

On the eve, we recall, the flight crew of the airline "Kogalymavia" published a letter in which he stated that the crashed plane was controlled by experienced pilots, whose actions were catastrophic.

However, this version does not fit with the information received from the flight recorders. A Reuters source in the Egyptian Commission of Inquiry said that, according to the first data analyzed, the liner was not exposed to external influences and did not send a distress signal before hitting the ground.

Airline version

Andrey Averyanov, Deputy General Director of the airline for technical and production issues, developed the version of the airline in more detail: when the A321 aircraft of the Kogalymavia airline went down to fall over the Sinai Peninsula, the aircraft most likely received significant structural damage, the crew completely lost control over control. In addition, in less than a minute, the A321 aircraft slowed down by more than 300 km per hour and lowered its altitude by 1.5 km. At the same time, there was not a single attempt to get in touch and report on the emergency on board.

“During the transition to a fall, the A321 most likely received significant structural damage that prevented it from continuing to fly. And, apparently, in connection with this, at the same moment the development of the catastrophic situation began, the crew completely lost their working capacity, this can explain the fact that there was not a single attempt to get in touch and report on the emergency situation on board, ”he explained.

A survey of the crews working on the A321 crashed in Egypt confirmed that the liner was in excellent technical condition. As the air carrier noted, over the past five flights, there was not a single comment in the logbook from the crew of the A321 on problems with the aircraft.

The airline also said that on October 26, the aircraft's engines passed a baroscopic test, and no problems were identified.

Kogalymavia argues that repairs carried out in 2001 after the plane’s tail touched the runway during landing (then the car belonged to the Lebanese carrier) could not have been the cause of the disaster, since the flaws would have been discovered by now.

“Regarding fatigue cracks, I should note that work on the assessment of fatigue cracks is carried out on aircraft with a frequency of once every five years. We carried out such work with all care on the plane, it was just 2014 in March, ”said Alexander Smirnov, flight director of Kogalymavia.

“Aircraft design defines airworthiness standards that ensure that no fatigue crack can develop to a critical size during the inspection interval,” he added.

Attack not ruled out

“Let's wait for the official results of the investigation, and the commission will tell us about its results, I would not like to engage in speculation now, this is not in my competence,” Smirnov suggested.

Answering the question whether there could have been a terrorist attack, Smirnov said: "Anything could have happened."

The version of the terrorist attack was not ruled out in the Kremlin either, although presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was necessary to first wait for the results of the investigation.

Recall that on Saturday, the France-Pressé agency, without reference to sources, posted information that the Sinai cell of ISIS took responsibility for the death of a plane with people. There was no confirmation of this information, and the Russian Minister of Transport stated that there was no evidence that the plane was shot down. In addition, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a case under Art. 263 (violation of flight rules and preparation for them) and under Part 3 of Art. 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (provision of services that do not meet security requirements).

However, experts do not exclude another - an explosion on board.

Assumptions

Currently, experts are discussing two versions - the destruction of the aircraft in the air as a result of a terrorist attack and due to technical problems of the aircraft.

The former head of the French Bureau of Investigation and Analysis of Civil Aviation Safety, Jean-Paul Troadec, said that, according to the information that is known at the moment, he can conclude that the plane did not crash at its peak.

“Obviously, the plane did not crash at the peak. There are no small fragments, which suggests that he did not fall at the peak. That's all that can be said at this stage," Troadek told Belgian publication La Derniere heure.

“Examination of the wreckage and flight recorder data will allow us to quickly determine which hypothesis is more likely: a crime or an accident,” he said.

Allen Buillard, who worked in France as an accident investigator, told the New York Times that he did not really imagine what technical problems could lead to the destruction in flight of such a modern aircraft as the Airbus A321-200. “Air disruption due to a technical glitch seems highly unlikely to me,” he added.

At the same time, the former head of the US National Transportation Safety Board, Mark Rosenker, said that he was more inclined to believe that the cause of the disaster was just technology, and not a terrorist attack, citing the fact that the plane was damaged in 2001 in favor of his version. year - when landing at high speed in Cairo, the tail touched the runway. Then the board was operated by the carrier Middle East Airlines. However, Rosenker did not deny the possibility of a terrorist attack.

Oleg Smirnov, President of the Partner of Civil Aviation Foundation, Honored Pilot of the USSR, said in an interview with the VZGLYAD newspaper that he did not exclude both the version of the attack and the technical one. According to him, it is necessary to check whether during the repair of the aircraft after the accident in 2001, the skin was opened: if the repair was limited to replacing the tail, experts could not see the microcracks formed on the fuselage. Such microcracks sooner or later lead to tragedy. In addition, Smirnov did not rule out depressurization: for example, an engine explosion occurred, after which the turbine could pierce the aircraft's skin, and the aircraft was torn apart by an air stream.

Initiatives

Meanwhile, Russia's main legislative body continues to discuss measures that could make the country's aviation industry safer. On Saturday, we recall, the deputy Alexei Pushkov proposed to ban the operation of aircraft older than 15 years, and on Sunday he added that two or three carriers should be left on the market.

Anatoly Vyborny, a member of the State Duma Security Committee, was not so categorical. In an interview with the VZGLYAD newspaper, he expressed the opinion that such restrictions should be discussed with aviation professionals. He also drew attention to the need to combat the supply of counterfeit aircraft parts.

Oleg Nilov, a member of the State Duma Committee on Transport, took the initiative to introduce a state monopoly on passenger air transportation: “I believe that we need to consider the issue - and I have already made such a proposal - on the return of the state monopoly. In any case, those companies that carry out passenger air transportation should be under 100% control of the state,” Nilov said, noting that Russia has been one of the first places in recent years in terms of the number of aviation accidents. “If you recalculate the number of flights and the number of people, then I’m afraid that this will be the first place,” the parliamentarian added.

Nilov recalled that there was already an experience of the state monopoly on air transportation, including in Soviet times. “As an option for a compromise, I propose: 51% of the shares are in the hands of the state, 49% are in the hands of private investors, entrepreneurs,” the deputy specified.

“It will be difficult to do this through some kind of law, amendments to the law. It would be more correct to apply to the government with such an initiative, and if it considers it possible, it will either prepare its own decrees, decisions and, if necessary, legislative acts, ”he explained to TASS.

Yevgeny Fedorov, a member of the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes, expressed the opinion that small airlines, whose fleet consists of three to ten aircraft, cannot ensure flight safety in full. “There are companies - three-five-ten aircraft. It is clear that they will not be able to pull out the security in full. You need to have several integrated airlines, as in banking. The strategic line itself is wrong,” he said.

“Over the past year, accidents in the aviation industry have increased by 35%,” the deputy concluded.