Disaster in the air: what became clear about the plane crash in Egypt. Lost flight: what is known about the causes of the A321 crash a year later Investigation into the causes of the tragedy over Sinai

As is currently known, the aircraft crashed near the city of El-Arish. Shortly before the accident, the aircraft commander requested permission from ground services for an emergency landing in Cairo due to technical problems.

According to the Internet portal Flightradar, the airliner sharply decreased in altitude before disappearing from radar: the plane crashed after descending 1.5 km.

There were 224 people on board the crashed Airbus 321, seven of them crew members. Egyptian rescuers who arrived at the scene reported hearing people groaning under the rubble and said they hoped to find someone who had survived, but it soon became known that no one had survived. Most of the plane's passengers were tourists returning to Russia after a vacation in Egypt.

Among the dead were the deputy head of Pskov, who was returning from vacation with his common-law wife, as well as a participant in the TV show “Top Model in Russian” Elena Domashnyaya from St. Petersburg. 24 children also died.

The vast majority of those on board the ship are Russians, but there are three Ukrainian citizens and one Belarusian citizen.

The bodies of the disaster victims were delivered to Cairo morgues as of Saturday evening. In St. Petersburg, DNA samples were taken from relatives of the victims for identification.

According to the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram, investigators have already found one of the flight recorders of Airbus 321. The “black box” contains all the communication data between the aircraft and the control tower of air traffic controllers, as well as conversations between the aircraft commander and his assistants,” the newspaper noted. It will be deciphered by Russian investigators and aviation experts, who flew to Egypt shortly after the tragedy.

The crash of Airbus 321 was the largest in Russian history, killing 224 people.

Before this, the largest in terms of the number of victims was the crash of a Tu-154 flying from Tashkent to Leningrad on July 10, 1985. Due to an error by the crew, the plane went into a tailspin and crashed near the Uzbek city of Uchkuduk. Then 200 people died.

Why did the plane crash?

On the first day of the disaster, conflicting information was received about the possible causes of the crash. Thus, Egyptian authorities said that the crew of the Airbus 321 complained of engine problems. They also put forward a version of a technical malfunction as one of the main ones. Wherein

Kogalymavia stated that they saw no reason to doubt the technical serviceability of the aircraft.

The Investigative Committee will apparently check all versions. In particular, investigators from the Privolzhsky Investigation Department for Transport in Samara at the site of the last refueling of the crashed plane on Saturday seized fuel samples.

A few hours after the accident (an organization banned in Russia), through its friendly news agency Aamaq, announced that it was taking responsibility for the crash of Airbus 321. Information about this was also posted. At the same time, it is known that local militants do not have weapons capable of hitting a flying target at such a height. Later, the terrorists' statements were categorically denied by Russian officials, including the Russian Minister of Transport. Despite all this,

In addition, the Minister of Labor ordered that the families of the deceased crew members of the crashed Airbus 321 be paid 1 million rubles each.

It is noteworthy that the tragedy did not affect plans for celebrating Halloween in Moscow. Gazeta.Ru called the organizers of the largest Halloween parties planned for that night in Moscow. As it turned out, the clubs do not intend to make adjustments to their plans in connection with the plane crash.
So,

parties will take place at Soho Rooms, Arma17, Ray Just Arena and the Moscow club.

The few city parks that joined the celebration, such as Sokolniki Park, also kept the schedule in place. Previously, an announcement about the event was even posted on the website of the prefecture of the Eastern Administrative District.

“Today everything will go according to the program, and tomorrow, of course, is a day of mourning,” the director of the park told Gazeta.Ru. “We don’t have anything special planned for tomorrow, but we’ll cancel the dances, for example.”

Could savings lead to tragedy?

The crashed Airbus A-321 was 18 years old. However, contrary to popular belief, the age of an aircraft does not affect its flight characteristics. The fact is that every aircraft is required to undergo regular scheduled checks and technical inspections in accordance with the rules of the International Air Transport Association (ICAO). Without the appropriate certificate, the air authorities and the airport will not allow the aircraft to fly. It is worth noting that, unlike the well-known in Russia method of “quickly doing” maintenance on a car, this option with an airplane is impossible, since

Each technician and technical team inspecting the aircraft bears personal responsibility for their inspection area and puts their signature on its results.

In this case, each member of the engineering and technical staff is responsible only for his own area (for example, the aircraft engine, the condition of the flaps, tail, etc.). Most aircraft flying in Russia undergo maintenance abroad at specialized centers, and some types of maintenance on foreign civil aircraft can only be carried out abroad.

During its life, the aircraft undergoes many technical checks, which actually replace each other: Transit check, Daily check, Weekly check, A-check, B-check, C-check and D-check.

A-check and B-check are a simple (light) inspection, while C- and D-check are a heavy form of maintenance. A D-check occurs approximately once every 12 years (that is, the crashed aircraft has already passed one D-check) and lasts 30-40 days. During it, the entire aircraft, all its components and parts are checked. Units that have reached the end of their service life or have failed testing must be replaced. Essentially, this means that the ITS team almost completely disassembles the aircraft, checking every part, electronics, wiring and assembly for corrosion or rust. If even slight signs of corrosion are detected, the part or part of the frame is replaced with a new one. As experts note, de facto this means that

By 25 years of service, only a few original components and parts remain from all the components of the aircraft that were assembled at the manufacturer.

World experience shows that most airlines are trying to get rid of old aircraft, constantly renewing their aircraft fleet. However, the point here is not about flight safety, but about basic economic benefits. The higher and more complex the level of aircraft technical inspection, the longer it takes and the more expensive it is for the airline. Thus,

Having submitted the aircraft for a 30-40-day D-check, the company will incur serious losses, since the aircraft cannot be operated during the check, and therefore cannot generate income.

However, despite the high safety of flights, any plane crash attracts increased attention from international aviation authorities, as well as from the manufacturers of the crashed aircraft. As a result of an investigation into the cause of a plane crash or incident, international aviation authorities may introduce new air travel safety requirements.

So, for example, after several incidents with navigation failure on an airplane, passengers were prohibited from turning on mobile phones, and aircraft manufacturers were ordered to think about improving the isolation of electronic on-board systems. As a result, this malfunction was eliminated in new aircraft models and some aviation authorities, for example the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), officially canceled the outdated regulation. Similarly, regulations were introduced to keep the window shades open during takeoff and landing: firstly,

Through the windows, passengers can notice an emergency outside the aircraft and inform the crew about it, and secondly, in the event of a hard landing, the window shade may break and there is a risk that sharp fragments of plastic will injure passengers.

The cause of today's tragedy remains to be determined, but we can safely say that there is no correlation between the age of the aircraft and its safety.

On October 31, 2015, a Russian aircraft Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia Airlines (Metrojet), operating flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, .

On instructions from the President, the Russian government in connection with the disaster, headed by Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) was under the leadership of the executive director of the committee, Viktor Sorochenko.

Cairo immediately after the disaster about the opportunity to take part in the investigation of the tragedy. A special commission of investigation was created, including: Russia, Egypt, France (the state of the aircraft’s developer), Germany (the state of the airliner’s manufacturer) and Ireland (the state of registration). Ayman al-Muqaddam was appointed head of the commission to investigate the disaster.

On November 1, 2015, Egyptian Prosecutor General Nabil Ahmed Sadek invited Russian specialists to participate in the investigation into the causes of the crash of a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula.

A group of investigators and criminologists from the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia, in agreement with the competent authorities and together with representatives of the Republic of Egypt, in accordance with the norms of national and international law, participated in the inspection of the scene of the plane crash in Egypt.

On November 17, 2015, the head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bortnikov, during a meeting in the Kremlin on the results of the investigation into the causes of the crash of a Russian plane, that as a result of an examination of personal belongings, luggage and parts of the plane that crashed in Egypt, traces of foreign-made explosives were identified. He .

In turn, the Egyptian authorities urged not to rush to conclusions. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that as part of a criminal investigation.

In March 2016, the International Commission of Inquiry into the crash of the Russian A321 aircraft announced that it had received an official report from the Investigative Committee of Russia and transferred it to the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office to complete legal procedures. The commission itself, despite the transfer of the case to the investigative authorities of the country's state security, continued the technical examination of the wreckage of the airliner.

In mid-April, Egypt's Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek announced the transfer of the case of the Russian plane crash to the country's High State Security Prosecutor's Office. The decision of the head of the supervisory agency, as noted in the text of the statement, was made on the basis of data from the report of the Investigative Committee of Russia, “which indicates a suspicion of the presence of a criminal trail.”

In June, CIA Director John Brennan, speaking in the Senate of the US Congress, said that American intelligence has information about the involvement of the Egyptian group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which swore allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist movement banned in many countries, in the explosion on the Russian passenger plane A321. (an organization banned in the Russian Federation), and on August 4, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense announced the elimination of the leader of this terrorist group.

At the insistence of the Investigative Committee of Russia, an international commission to investigate the aviation accident. As a result of the work carried out, the fact of the influence of high-energy elements on the skin of the aircraft in the “inside-out” direction and “explosive decompression” in flight was established.

In October 2016, an investigation commission formed by the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office sent twelve pieces of the aircraft to a scientific alloys laboratory for a detailed study.

Work to determine the causes of the crash. To date, the parties have no understanding of what happened to the plane, how the explosive device got on board the plane, or who carried it. There are also no identified suspects or their accomplices from among the airport employees.

A motley crowd of tourists, a vibrant underwater world that attracts divers from all over the world - all this attracts travelers. Russians were eager to go there as if they were going to a second dacha: at least a week to rest from work and bask in the sun. Whole families flew until the plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 forced the entire country to shudder.

Tragic accident

A tourist group from the Brisco company was returning on a charter flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. Despite the early morning (departure at 5.50 local time), the passengers were in excellent spirits. They posted pictures of their successful vacation on social networks. It was Saturday, and on Monday many had to plunge into work; some had work, others had to study.

The Airbus A321-231 EI-ETJ airliner, which arrived from Samara, took 217 passengers on board. They and seven crew members had to be in the Northern capital by 12 noon, where many had relatives and friends waiting at the airport. Having reached a given altitude of 9400 meters in 23 minutes, at a speed of 520 km/h the aircraft suddenly disappeared from the radar. At 6.15 (7.15 Moscow) the plane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula near El-Arish airport - the hottest spot in Egypt, where government troops were confronted by Al-Qaeda Islamists.

Versions of the tragedy

Those meeting flight 9268 at Pulkovo Airport anxiously watched the board, which displayed the information: “Arrival delayed.” And by evening, the whole country knew that the wreckage of the aircraft that had disappeared from radar had been discovered by the Egyptian authorities. Scattered over a length of 13 kilometers, with the tail section torn off, they were shown on television, which gave rise to many versions of experts about the possible causes of the disaster. Three were considered the most reliable:

• Technical problems associated either with engine failure or metal fatigue. In the tail section, traces of skin repairs were found after the aircraft touched the asphalt with its tail while landing at Cairo airport in 2001. The resulting microcrack could cause the destruction of the aircraft as it climbed.
• The plane crash in Egypt was caused by the crew's mistakes.
• Terrorist act.

The IAC commission, headed by Egyptian representative Ayman al-Mukkadam, began working at the site of the tragedy. It included representatives of Russia, France, Germany, the USA and Ireland. After studying the evidence and decoding, the first two versions were found unfounded.

Aircraft

The A321 crash over the Sinai Peninsula was the largest in the history of Egypt and modern Russia. The airbus belonged to the Kogalymavia company, which underwent a thorough inspection. It was found that after the 2001 emergency, the aircraft was repaired in France at the manufacturer's plant, after which all the necessary tests were carried out. Over 18 years of operation, the airliner flew less than 50% of its service life (57,428 hours) and was in good condition. This is evidenced by weekly technical checks, the last of which was carried out on October 26, 2015. The flight recorders did not detect any system malfunction. Until the 23rd minute, the flight proceeded quite normally.

Crew

Forty-eight-year-old crew commander Valery Nemov is a graduate of SVAAULSH (Stavropol Military School). He is one of the few who, in the difficult 90s, retrained to fly on Airbuses since 2008, having 12 thousand flight hours, which testifies to his enormous experience. The second pilot also came from military aviation, being a veteran of the Chechen campaign. After retiring, Sergei Trukhachev retrained on the A321, having undergone training in the Czech Republic. I flew them for more than 2 years. The total flight time was 6 thousand hours. Both pilots were in good standing with their airline. Nemov was even called back from vacation prematurely to be sent on the infamous flight 9268.

Official version

Two weeks after the tragedy, the version of the terrorist attack was officially voiced by the head of the FSB during a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation. To support his words, he provided the following evidence:

1. American satellites recorded a thermal flash over Sinai during the disaster, which indicates an explosion occurred on board the plane.
2. The fuselage fragment has a hole with a diameter of about one meter. Its edges are curved outward. This indicates that the source of the explosion was inside.
3. When decoding the recorder recording the negotiations, before the recording is interrupted, extraneous noise is heard, the nature of which can be attributed to a blast wave.
4. The plane crash in Egypt caused great public outcry. After a while, they not only admitted responsibility for the terrorist attack, but also posted a photo of an improvised explosive device (IED) on the pages of Dabig magazine.
5. Some of the victims had injuries indicating death from the consequences of the explosion (burns, tissue ruptures).
6. Traces of explosives - TNT molecules - were found in fragments of shrapnel, luggage and on the bodies of the victims.

The power of the explosion was estimated at 1 kilogram. The estimated location of the IED is the tail of the aircraft. For the blast wave moved forward, but the fracture of the fuselage prevented its further advancement.

Plane crash in Egypt: who is to blame?

After the Russian version appeared, it became known that 17 employees were detained at the Egyptian airport. The main question was one: “How did the IED get on board the airliner?” The FSB began studying the biographies of 34 passengers (11 men and 23 women) who had TNT molecules on their bodies. But official Egypt soon stated that there was no evidence for a clear statement about a terrorist attack on board the plane. None of the employees were actually arrested. Russian authorities have announced a $50 million reward for any information about the terrorists.

Only in February 2016 did the Egyptian President officially acknowledge the terrorist attack. It was discovered that the bomb was made from plasticite, which is used to create military projectiles. It is powered by a clock mechanism. The plane crash in Egypt on October 31, 2015 showed that the airport security system does not meet international standards. The IED could have come on board the food supply company, through employees with access to the runway, or through carry-on luggage during baggage checks. The latest data is such that it was in the cabin in the immediate vicinity of place 31A. All these facts led to a ban on the sale of holiday tours in Egypt.

Flight passengers

EI-ETJ - the last digits of the Airbus number. According to them, the aviators called the board “Juliet” among themselves, affectionately “Dzhulka”. On that tragic morning, she broke up three aviation marriages and killed a young steward who replaced a colleague who had quit due to a bad dream. It also took the lives of 217 passengers, 25 of whom were children. Those killed in a plane crash in Egypt are entire families, dozens of destroyed love stories, babies who will never grow up. Ten-month-old Darina Gromova was on this flight with her parents. Her mother posted her photo on a social network before the flight. A girl stands at the airport facing the runway, and below is the signature: “Main Passenger.” This picture became a symbol of the tragic flight from which no one was able to return.

Almost all passengers are Russians, 4 people are citizens of Ukraine, 1 is from Belarus. The majority are residents of St. Petersburg, although there are also representatives of other regions: Pskov, Novgorod, Ulyanovsk. Those killed in the plane crash in Egypt are people of various professions. Even while relatives were busy identifying the bodies, caring people were forming a collective portrait of the passengers, collecting information about them bit by bit. A wonderful gallery was created, where there were many good words about everyone.

Almost a year later

On July 31, Moscow and St. Petersburg held a rally in memory of those killed over the Sinai. Nine months passed: many relatives received compensation, identified and buried their loved ones, but the pain did not subside. On August 5, 2016, a message was received that forty-five militants led by Abu Dua al-Ansari, through whose fault the plane crash occurred in Egypt, were killed during a military operation near El-Arish. I really want to believe that something like this will never happen again!

October 31, 2015, an Airbus A321-200 (EI-ETJ) of the Russian airline Metrojet (formerly Kogalym Avia, Colavia) operating flight 7K-9268 from Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) to St. Petersburg (Russian Federation) with 217 passengers and 7 crew members, climbed to altitude FL307 over the Sinai Peninsula (100 km south of El Arish) and at 04:12Z the plane disappeared from the radar screens. The wreckage of the aircraft was found in a mountainous area approximately 35 km south of El Arish (Sinai, Egypt). No one survived the plane crash.

The age of the crashed aircraft was 18 years and five months, it was equipped with two IAE V2533-A5 turbofan engines, the total flight time of the aircraft was 55,772 hours, it completed 21,175 flights.

During its operation, the airliner was provided to air carriers by leasing companies ILFC, IST-DAM 3 and AerCap. On May 27, 1997, the car entered the fleet of the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines, receiving the registration number F-OHMP. On November 16, 2001, while landing at Cairo airport, its tail caught the surface of the runway, receiving minor damage. Since May 29, 2003, it has operated flights under the flag of the Turkish carrier Onur Air (registration TC-OAE). In January 2007 and November 2008, the aircraft was sub-leased by Saudi Arabian Airlines, and in July 2010 by Syrian Cham Wings Airlines, after which it was returned to Onur Air.

On March 30, 2012, the aircraft joined the fleet of the Russian carrier Metrojet (Kogalymavia), the registration number was changed to EI-ETJ. The company received an airliner with a single-class "economy" layout for 220 passengers. The first flight under the flag of the Russian carrier was carried out on April 27, 2012.

According to the Flightradar24 portal, the plane, flying flight 7K9268 from Sharm el-Sheikh airport to Pulkovo airport, took off at 03:51 UTC (06:51 Moscow time). At 04:12 UTC (07:12 Moscow time) the aircraft was at an altitude of 30,800 feet and the autopilot continued to climb smoothly to the specified altitude of 32,000 feet. At 04:13 UTC (07:13 Moscow time), the aircraft reached an altitude of 33,500 feet (10,210 m) and a speed of 404 knots (748 km/h), after which the aircraft's speed suddenly dropped to 184 knots (341 km/h), and then - up to 93 knots (172 km/h) and altitude up to 28,375 feet (8,649 m). This is where the flight track ends - in all likelihood, the A321 transponder has stopped transmitting data on flight parameters. You can download a file with second-by-second data from three FR24 receivers.

The “black boxes” of the A321 passenger airliner that crashed on the Sinai Peninsula received only minor damage, and there were no traces of thermal effects on them. Decryption of the flight recorders will most likely be carried out in Egypt.

This is the largest plane crash in the history of Egypt and Airbus A321 aircraft.

The first at the scene of the plane crash were journalists from the Russia Today channel, who published a video of the wreckage:

"Nevskie Novosti" compiled a chronicle of the events of the plane crash of the Russian passenger plane Airbus A321 of the Kogalymavia airline.

It is known that the Airbus A321 reached an altitude of 33 thousand 500 feet (10,210 meters) and a speed of 404 knots (748 km/h). At 7:13 the plane's speed suddenly dropped to 184 knots (341 km/h). After this, the speed dropped to 93 knots (172 km/h), and the altitude dropped to 28 thousand 375 feet (8,649 meters). Then the plane disappeared from radar and flight parameters became unavailable.

Versions about what happened to flight 7K9268 varied : the head of Egypt's air safety agency said that the Russian airliner of the Kogalymavia company most likely continues to fly in the Turkish region, and the Prime Minister of Egypt, on the contrary, the plane crashed.

Search and rescue operations begin:

At about 12 o'clock flight 7K9268 arrived at Pulkovo. ​

Around one o'clock in the afternoon it became known that the wreckage of the Airbus-321 airliner, flight 9268 "Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg" and owned by the Kogalymavia airline, was found in Egypt. It was reported that .

Then, at 13:00, Egyptian rescuers of the first victims of the disaster and the authorities sent 45 ambulances to the crash site.

At 14:20 it became known that there were 27 children on board the plane.

At about 3 p.m., it turned out that the crashed plane was a plane and was operated by five different airlines.

At about 4 p.m., the tour operator Briscoe, which ordered this plane,...

At about 18:00 the head of the Ministry of Labor announced the payment of compensation to the families of the victims in the amount of 2 million rubles.

Today It also became known that the Airbus black boxes and Russian specialists, together with Egypt, have already begun to decrypt them.