Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe says Irish aviation regulators are "superb" in their safety records.

French and Egyptian officials laid wreaths today in an area of the Red Sea where a jet crashed, killing all 148 people aboard.

The Egyptian charter company whose plane crashed into the Red Sea killing 148 people had been banned from flying to Switzerland for more than a year because of technical problems, a civil aviation official said today.

A flotilla of boats resumed searching today for flotsam and bodies from the charter jet of French tourists that crashed into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people aboard.

France today said it would send accident investigation experts to Egypt following the crash of a charter aircraft with 148 people on board, including 134 French tourists.

A charter airliner carrying 148 people – mostly French tourists – crashed into the Red Sea today after taking off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, officials said.

Investigators in Egypt were today trying to discover the cause of a plane crash in which 141 people are feared to have died near the resort where the British Prime Minister Tony Blair is on holiday.

A charter jet with 141 people aboard – most of them French tourists – crashed into the Red Sea today after taking off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, according to officials who feared no one had survived.