‘Explosive device may have downed jet’

The Russian passenger plane which crashed in Egypt on Saturday “may well have been brought down by an explosive device”, the British Government has said.

The announcement came as a doctor studying the bodies of the dead said most of the burns were ante-mortem, suffered before death, indicating that there must have been enormous flames inside the cabin as the plane broke up.

Many of the bodies were charred to the extent that DNA testing would be required to help identify the victims.

The doctor, who asked to remain anonymous, said such a powerful fire could have been caused by a bomb or be the result of an engine fire. However, tests have shown no explosive residue on bodies.

Investigators have extracted and validated the contents of the flight data recorder, one of two so-called black boxes recovered from the Russian airplane that crashed in Egypt, Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry said.

Britain says significant possibility explosive device caused Egypt plane crash https://t.co/270Ddi6mwf

— Reuters UK (@ReutersUK) November 4, 2015

The ministry said the second black box which contains the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was partially damaged and much work was required to extract data from it.

“Consequently no further comment on the CVR can be made. Examination of parts on site is continuing,” it said.

Last night, the Irish Aviation Authority directed Irish airline operators not to operate to or from Egypt’s Sharm elSheikh Airport or in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula airspace until further notice.

Earlier, Islamic State’s (IS) Egyptian affiliate dismissed in a new audio message doubts that it had downed the Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 aboard, and said it would tell the world how it did so in its own time.

The Russian-operated Airbus A321M crashed on Saturday shortly after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh on its way to St Petersburg.

Sinai Province, an Egyptian group loyal to IS, said in a statement the same day that it had brought down the airliner “in response to Russian air strikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land”.

Asked to comment on those remarks and local press reports that the black box voice recorders had picked up unusual sounds before the crash, civil aviation minister Hossam Kemal said the facts had yet to be established.

He said: “This is all speculation. There is nothing definitive until the investigation commission completes its probe.”

In an audio message posted on a Twitter account used by the group, IS’s Egyptian affiliate insisted it was behind the crash.

Russian officials have said the plane probably broke up in the air. Flights from Sharm el-Sheikh to the UK were suspended last night .

The “precautionary” move was to allow time for a specialist British team to assess security arrangements in the Egyptian resort.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said: “While the investigation is still ongoing we cannot say categorically why the Russian jet crashed. But as more information has come to light we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device.”