Egyptian officials suspect that terrorists planted a bomb onboard the Russian Airbus A321 that crashed on Saturday over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 crew and passengers.
All authorities have rejected Islamic State (ISIS) claims that it shot down the plane, but the fact that it is rare for an airplane to disintegrate shortly after taking off from before takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh airport makes the bomb theory more probable.
Russian aviation official Viktor Sorochenko, who inspected the crash site, told Russian media that that the flight “broke up in the air,” which explains why debris was found over 12 square miles.
Bloomberg News reported that said Steve Wallace, former chief of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s crash investigation division, said that it’s very rare with a modern airplane.
However, in 2001, the rear of the 18-year-old aircraft scraped along the tarmac and sustained extensive damage, although the plane was repaired.
The wife of co-pilot of the St, Petersburg-bound plane told Russian television that her husband had complained about the condition of the plane.
Authorities have recovered the black box from the ill-fated plane, but it will take several days before they conclude their investigation.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Sunday evening that he no one can say whether a technical failure or terrorists caused the crash until an “extensive and complicated technical study” is completed.
Former Israeli national security adviser and IDF Intelligence Chief Yaakov Amidror said “other scenarios also have to be considered, especially the possibility that the plane was sabotaged at the airport before taking off.”
Yves Trotignon, a former French intelligence agent, told Le Parisien:
The [Russian’ statement [that the plane fell apart in mid-air] does not say they shot it {ISIS] down, but that they destroyed it. You could imagine explosives on board, or sabotage.