Air France & Lufthansa avoid Egypt’s Sinai Airspace following Crash of Russian Jet

Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : Following the crash of the Russian Kogalmavia Airlines a.k.a Metrojet on Flight KGL9268 in Egypt’s North Sinai on Saturday, Air France and Lufthansa decided to avoid the Egyptian airspace over the Sinai peninsula. Latest reports suggest that the jet suffered structural failure and broke up in flight. Egypt is fighting a Daesh associated insurgency in North Sinai. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry described the decisions made by Air France and Lufthansa as irresponsible. 

Photo courtesy of Tass, Maxim Grygoriev.

Photo courtesy of Tass, Maxim Grygoriev.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry denounced the decisions made by Air France and the German Lufthansa as irresponsible and as serving the goal of terrorist organizations, reports The Cairo Post. The statement was made on Algerian television. A spokeswoman for Lufthansa on the other hand, told the press that:

“We took the decision to avoid the area because the situation and the reasons for the crash were not clear. … We will continue to avoid the area until it is clear what caused the crash.”

Kogalmavia Airlines a.k.a Metrojet on Flight KGL9268 lost radio contact 23 minutes after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh Airport. Sharm el-Sheikh, located at the Red Sea,  is one of Egypt’s primary tourism resorts. The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder of the Airbus 321 were recovered Sunday. Results from the recorders has not yet been published. The Cairo Post, however, would report in Breaking News, on Monday, that a preliminary investigation of the black boxes reportedly showed that no distress call was made from the plane.

Kogalmavia (Kogalymavia) Airlines staff held an international press conference on Monday, stating that all that the airline was aware of at the current time was that the jet was airworthy and that the jet had broken up in flight.

The airline would not speculate about the possible reasons for the mid-air breakup, stating that it, as this time, may as well be anything that has led to the fatal crash that claimed the lives of all 224 passengers and crew on board the airliner. Parts of the jet were reportedly found some 8 km from the otherwise spatially rather limited main crash site.

Flightradar_Egypt_KGL9268 crash siteEgypt’s top prosecutor issued a decision Sunday to consider the crash site of the ill-fated Russian plane in Sinai Peninsula as restricted area until the end of investigations. Russian investigators are reportedly analyzing the data from the plane’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder at the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry in Cairo.

Egyptian government sources stressed that the plane was at an altitude of some 28,000 – 31,000 ft (depending on reports) when it suddenly lost speed and altitude and plunged to the ground.

Egyptian government officials repeatedly stressed that the plane flew above the range of the weapons that are available to insurgents in Egypt’s North Sinai peninsula. Among them is the Daesh associated Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis (ABM).

The situation does, however, bring to mind the conclusion reached after the investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine. In its final report, the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) would stress that the Ukrainian government as well as tens of flight operators had failed to realize the risks associated with flying above an area where a conflict was in progress.

The decision made by Air France and Lufthansa not to fly above an area where there is a conflict in progress, and where a plane has just recently crashed due to unknown causes may very well have been influenced by the conclusions of the DSB-led investigation into the MH17 tragedy. This is especially noteworthy, considering the involvement of foreign State actors behind the insurgency in Egypt’s North Sinai province. 

Besides the possibility of the plane being struck by of surface to air missile, which Egyptian government sources exclude due to the altitude, there is the risk of a bomb on board or sabotage. Whether or not there was foul play involved in the tragedy is, however, at this time, impossible to tell. 

Ultimately, the flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder, radar and other data as well as evidence from the crash site may provide answers to the causes of the crash. nsnbc calls, as in all air crashes, for full transparency and for providing certified copies of the data from the black boxes to independent media. nsnbc will pursue this issue if necessary. (See our contact date for witnesses, bereft, investigators and whistleblowers below).

Russian authorities have filed a criminal lawsuit against Kogalymavia Airlines. Such a lawsuit is, however, also part of standard procedures and does not necessarily suggest guilt on behalf of the airline. Holding an international press conference on Monday, the airline rejected claims that the co-pilot should have complained about the plane’s condition.

Kogalmavia Airbus 321. Photo courtesy of Flighttracker.

Kogalmavia Airbus 321. Photo courtesy of Flighttracker.

The Russian TV channel NTV quoted the wife of the deceased co-pilot as saying that her husband had complained about the plane’s condition.

The airline stressed that it had not received any complaints and that it would have canceled any flight had it received complaints. During Monday’s press conference Viktor Yung, Kogalymavia’s deputy CEO, said:

“The plane went out of control. It was not flying. It was falling. … Apparently, by that time it had suffered considerable damage that did not allow it to proceed with the flight.”

Yung said that the Airbus 321 apparently fell apart when it was still in air as a result of excessive G-forces caused by the effects of the free fall. Yung’s statement about the G-forces can be correct; that is, a plane that departs from controlled flight can be subject to G-forces beyond a plane’s design limits.

Yung’s statement that “no combination of failures could have caused the plane to disintegrate in mid-air” is, however, inconsistent with the history of air disasters. Crashes caused by mechanical failure, regardless whether they be external or internal, occur usually due to a complex convergence of human and mechanical factors.

Relatives of passengers of crashed Russian A321 at Pulkovo airport. Photo courtesy of Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS

Relatives of passengers of crashed Russian A321 at Pulkovo airport. Photo courtesy of Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS

Meanwhile Monday is the second of three days of national mourning that was called upon by the Russian presidency. Monday, the first remains of the 224 passengers and crew were repatriated to Russia.

Most passengers were Russian nationals. Four were from Ukraine and one from Belarus. Tragically the majority of the deceased are women and children. There are 25 children between the age of 2 – 17 among the victims.

Besides having the remains of loved ones repatriated, one of the most important factors for finding closure is full transparency with regard to the investigation, independently testable, verifiable or falsifiable evidence and data, results of an investigation and a report that is consistent with such evidence.

CH/L – nsnbc 02.11.2015

NB.: Our condolences and sympathies to the bereft, on behalf of nsnbc international, Christof Lehmann. Bereft, experts and witnesses can reach out to nsnbc international via telephone +45 322 177 31 mobile +45 71 468 488 or Skype ID: nsnbc.international .

Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2015/11/02/air-france-lufthansa-avoid-egypts-sinai-airspace-following-crash-of-russian-jet/

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