Sinai plane crash: 'No SOS call' before disaster

A Russian aircraft did not lodge an SOS call before crashing in Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, Egypt's civil aviation minister says.

Initial reports from Egypt said the pilot of the Kogalymavia airline had asked to make an emergency landing.
But minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight.
Lufthansa and Air France-KLM said they would avoid the route while the cause of the crash was investigated.
A claim by a group allied to the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Sinai that it brought down the plane has been dismissed by Russia and Egypt.
The Airbus A-321 came down early on Saturday, shortly after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St Petersburg.


Russian authorities say the plane was carrying 217 passengers, including 25 children. There were seven crew members on board.
Egyptian officials had said 214 of the passengers were Russian and three Ukrainian, but Russian officials said at least one of the victims was from Belarus.
On Saturday morning, Egyptian aviation official Ayman el-Mokadem, who the country's media say is heading an investigation into the crash, said flight KGL9268 had asked to land early because of a technical failure.
But Mr Kamal told a press conference this was not the case.
"Up until the crash happened, we were never informed of any faults in the plane, nor did we receive any SOS calls," he said.
All contact with air traffic control had been normal, and pre-flight checks showed no problems, he added.

Egypt's civilian aviation ministry said the plane had been at an altitude of 9,450m (31,000ft) when it disappeared.
Security experts say a plane flying at that altitude would be beyond the range of a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile (Manpad), which Sinai militants are known to possess.
Wreckage was found in the Hasana area of Sinai and the plane's two black box recorders were removed, Mr Kamal said. One of the instruments logs cockpit recordings and the other registers flight data.
German carrier Lufthansa said it would avoid flying over the Sinai peninsula "as long as the cause for today's crash has not been clarified". On Saturday evening, Air France-KLM said it was following suit.
British Airways and easyJet said their routes were regularly reviewed, but that they had no plans to alter their routes to and from Sharm el-Sheikh.
Sinai has an active militant network, and on Saturday afternoon, jihadis allied to IS made a claim on social media that they brought down flight KGL9268.
Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov told Interfax news agency that "such reports cannot be considered true". No evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, he said.

Source: BBC