Egypt plane crash: Russia says jet was bombed in terror attack

FSB says crash was ‘unequivocally a terrorist
act’, as Reuters reports that two Sharm el-
Sheikh airport employees have been detained
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Plane crashes Egypt
Africa Middle East and North Africa
Vladimir Putin and Russia’s security service chief
discuss the Russian plane brought down over Egypt
Matthew Weaver in London and Alec Luhn in
Moscow
Tuesday 17 November 2015 11.18 GMT
The Kremlin has said it will increase
airstrikes in Syria after acknowledging for
the first time that a bomb brought down the
Russian jet that crashed over Egypt last
month, killing all 224 people on board.
Russia has until now played down assertions
from western countries that the crash was a
terrorist incident, saying it was important to
let the official investigation run its course.

But three days after terrorist gunmen and
bombers killed 129 people in Paris, Alexander
Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s FSB security
service, told a meeting chaired by President
Vladimir Putin on Monday night that the
plane crash was “unequivocally a terrorist
act”.
Bortnikov said investigators had studied the
personal belongings, baggage and debris from
the aircraft and concluded that an
improvised bomb, packed with up to 1.5kg of
TNT, exploded in mid-air. He said traces of
explosives were found in the plane’s debris.
Putin said he had ordered Russia’s special
services to focus on finding those responsible.
“The tears in our soul and heart will remain
with us forever, but this won’t stop us from
finding and punishing those guilty,” he said.
“We will search for them wherever they may
be hiding. We will find them anywhere on
the planet and punish them.”
The FSB told news agency Interfax on
Tuesday that it was offering a $50m reward
for information leading to the capture of
those responsible.
Putin also ordered the Russian air force to
intensify its airstrikes in Syria in response.
“It [the air campaign] must be intensified in
such a way that the criminals understand that
retribution is inevitable,” he said.
Separately, Reuters reported that Egyptian
authorities had detained two employees at
Sharm el-Sheikh airport in connection with
the crash. “Seventeen people are being held,
two of them are suspected of helping whoever
planted the bomb on the plane at Sharm el-
Sheikh airport,” a security official told
Reuters.
The Egyptian interior ministry denied the
report, saying in a statement “this news is
completely and totally untrue”.
Last week, Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip
Hammond, said there was a “high
probability” that a bomb planted by a
supporter of Islamic State brought down the
Russian airliner.
US officials also suspected that a device
planted on Metrojet flight 9268 exploded
shortly after it took off from Sharm on 31
October. An Isis affiliate has claimed
responsibility for the crash.
For several days after the attack Russian
officials were sceptical of claims that plane
was bought down by terrorists. Russia’s
transport minister, Maksim Sokolov, said the
claim could not be considered accurate . And
when the UK suspended flights to and from
Sharm el-Sheikh over security concerns –
stranding 20,000 tourists in the resorts –
Russian politicians and media accused the UK
of jumping to conclusions.
The chair of the foreign committee in Russia’s
upper house of parliament, Konstantin
Kosachyov, even said the UK move was meant
to put “psychological pressure” on Russia
over its airstrikes in Syria in support of
Bashar al-Assad.
Several extremist groups called for attacks
against Russia after Moscow began a
campaign of airstrikes in late September.
Russian tourist flights to Sharm el-Sheikh
initially continued, but they were halted
when it emerged that an apparent explosion
could be heard on the recovered flight
recorder. Putin’s spokesman insisted at the
time that the decision did not mean it was
favouring the bomb theory.
Suspicions had intensified in the week after
the Metrojet airliner came down. Reports
from the US said a “flash” from the plane was
picked up by US satellites. American officials
said intercepted intelligence “chatter”
involving militant groups in Sinai supported
the bomb theory.
Despite mounting evidence of a bomb on the
plane, Egypt has refused to concede that
terrorism was to blame. The country stands to
lose a critical source of income in the region
if the tourist industry is in effect shut down
because of terrorism fears.

The Guardian