‘No proof yet’ plane broke up in mid-air

Irish investors among team examining crash site in Egypt.

The civil aviation ministry in Egypt has said that there were no facts to substantiate Russian claims that the Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt on Saturday broke up in mid-air.

However, spokesman Mohamed Rahmi confirmed that no distress call had been received before the crash, which left wreckage from the Metrojet Airbus 321, carrying Russian holidaymakers back to St Petersburg from the Sinai Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, strewn over more than 3km of desert in the Sinai Peninsula.