The flight number that crashed over Sinai. Terrorist attack on board Kogalymavia: the main thing

Exactly two years have passed since the death of 224 people over Sinai. The vast majority of those killed were Russian citizens. The FSB of the Russian Federation, and after it the Egyptian authorities, recognized the tragic incident as a terrorist attack. However, its perpetrators have not yet been found. It remains unclear who ordered this terrible crime.

Exactly two years ago, on October 31, 2015, the most massive air crash in terms of the number of deaths occurred in the entire history of Russia.

On this day, an Airbus A321-231 airliner of the Russian airline Kogalymavia took off from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and headed for St. Petersburg. The crew of the airliner was operating a charter flight and was taking Russian tourists home after a vacation.

It soon became clear that the Airbus A321-231 crashed to the ground in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula and was completely destroyed.

The wreckage of the aircraft was scattered over 13 km. All 224 people on board the plane were killed.

At the time of the death of the airliner, there were seven crew members and 217 passengers. Of these, four were Ukrainians, one was Belarusian, and the rest were Russian citizens. Among them was Alexander Kopylov, deputy head of Pskov and deputy of the local legislative assembly.

According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the oldest passenger was 77 years old, and the youngest victim of the tragedy was 10-month-old Darina Gromova.

Shortly before the tragic incident, her mother Tatyana published a photo of the child on a page on the VKontakte social network. The photo shows the girl standing on the windowsill of an airport window with her back to the viewer. She looks at the planes on the ground.

Tatyana Gromova captioned the photo: “The most important passenger.” This photograph was later circulated by many Russian and world media and became a symbol of the Sinai disaster.

Darina's mother and father also died as a result of the plane crash.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as the leaders of many countries in Europe and the world, expressed condolences to the victims. The day after the plane crashed, mourning was declared in Russia.

However, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published three cartoons on the topic of the disaster, which caused a negative reaction from the Russian Foreign Ministry and the State Duma. In response, the French Foreign Ministry stated that “in France, journalists freely express their opinions,” while “it does not always coincide with the official position of the French authorities.”

“There were no questions about the car”

Soon after the incident, various versions of what happened began to be put forward.

Almost immediately, the hypothesis that the plane crashed due to a pilot error was dismissed. The crashed Airbus was controlled by experienced pilots, and the crew commander, 48-year-old Valery Nemov, had flown over 12 thousand hours, of which more than 3860 were on the Airbus A321.

However, details of the aircraft’s operation soon became known, and it turned out that it was far from new. It was released in the spring of 1997 and made its first flight on May 9. After this, the aircraft was transferred to the American company International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), which by May 27 leased it to the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines (MEA), which had owned it for six years.

On June 2, 2003, already under tail number TC-OAE, the airliner was leased to the Turkish airline Onur Air. This structure later sub-leased the aircraft to Saudi Arabian Airlines, and from July 30 to September 29, 2010 to Syrian Cham Wings Airlines. By the spring of 2012, the TC-OAE board returned to ILFC, and by March 30, 2012, it was leased to the Russian Kogalymavia.

On April 30 of the same 2012, it was bought from ILFC by the Dutch airline AerCap, which re-delivered this airliner to the Russian Kogalymavia. The Russian airline, in turn, has already been operating under the Metrojet brand since May 1, 2012.

During the long service of the aircraft, an unpleasant incident occurred from a safety point of view. On November 16, 2001, he was flying passenger flight ME 306 on the route Beirut - Cairo and during landing at the airport in the Egyptian capital, the pilots raised his nose too high, as a result of which the tail dropped so low that it hit the ground.

None of the 88 people on board the plane (81 passengers and 7 crew members) were injured then, and the airliner itself returned to passenger routes after undergoing repairs. This information was confirmed by representatives of Kagalymavia, assuring that the aircraft passed all the necessary checks and technical tests on time.

On the eve of departure, the ill-fated flight underwent maintenance, and the receiving crew had no questions about the car.

Interrupted message

An investigation into the causes of the tragedy was launched by several large structures from around the world, since Egypt is a very popular tourist destination among citizens of many countries.

The investigation was carried out by the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee, the French Bureau of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis, the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, the Irish Air Accident Investigation Department, and the US National Transportation Safety Board.

Meanwhile, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened criminal cases under Articles 263 and 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of traffic safety rules and operation of railway, air, sea and inland water transport and the subway” and “Production, storage, transportation or sale of goods and products, execution works or provision of services that do not meet safety requirements").

On November 16, the head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bortnikov, said that the disaster occurred as a result of a terrorist attack - a homemade explosive device with a capacity of up to 1 kg of TNT went off.

This became clear after traces of an explosive not made in Russia were found on the wreckage of the plane and the belongings of passengers.

And the next day, Russian security forces turned to the Russian and international community for assistance in identifying the terrorists. A reward of $50 million has been offered for information leading to the arrest of the criminals.

Egyptian law enforcement officials did not recognize the tragedy as a terrorist attack for some time; they did so only in February 2016.

Be that as it may, already in November 2015, the Russian authorities decided to completely interrupt air traffic with this Arab country until the situation in the field of aviation security is normalized.

At the same time, the remaining Russian tourists at that time were taken out of Egypt upon the end of their tourist packages, but only hand luggage was allowed on board the planes, and luggage was delivered separately, on special flights of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

The UK and German airlines also interrupted flights with the Egyptian state, and France, the Netherlands and Belgium warned their citizens against flying to Sharm el-Sheikh. In addition, Turkish Airlines announced the cancellation of night flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.

Customers not identified

Meanwhile, the victims in the disaster case filed a class action lawsuit against the tour operator, Kogalymavia airline and insurance companies for a total amount of about €1.4 billion. This is the first example of a class action lawsuit for such a serious amount in Russian history.

And although the involvement of Kagalymavia employees in the incident over Sinai is not confirmed by facts, in the spring of 2016, the Federal Air Transport Agency banned domestic and international flights of this airline.

According to the most frequently voiced version, the Sinai branch of the terrorist organization ISIS * “Wilayat Sinai” (both organizations are banned in Russia) is behind the terrorist attack. Its members accepted responsibility for this crime shortly after the fact.

However, there are other points of view. A number of experts believe that the Qatari organization Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (an ISIS cell) could be behind the terrorist attack. The US CIA also announced her trace in the tragedy.

Be that as it may, after the death of the plane, Russian aviation began to intensify air strikes against targets of various Islamist organizations in Syria. For the first time, Russian strategic aviation was involved in raids on the targets of ISIS and other extremists.

However, the names of the specific perpetrators of the terrorist attack have not yet been established.

And on October 28, 2017, a monument to the victims of the disaster was unveiled at the Serafimovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.

In addition, among St. Petersburg residents there is an idea to erect a monument to 10-month-old Darina Gromova, which the famous sculptor Zurab Tsereteli has already promised to do for free.

Vladimir Vashchenko

* terrorist group banned in the Russian Federation

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.

On October 31, 2015, the Russian airliner A321 crashed as a result of a terrorist attack in Egypt.

Exactly a year ago, October 31, 2015, over the Sinai Peninsula. The disaster, which became the largest in the history of Soviet and Russian aviation, claimed the lives of 224 people.

Most of them are residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. A year after the tragedy, not all the relatives of the victims were able to bury their loved ones. Until now, St. Petersburg residents are waiting for official and final results of the investigation into the disaster from the Egyptian side. And they literally learn to live again.

On October 30, Airbus 321-231 of Kogalymavia airlines safely completed two flights on the route Sharm el-Sheikh - Samara - Sharm el-Sheikh.

The handing over crew, PIC Dmitry Zhigalkovich, and co-pilot Yuri Yushkoinne do not make any comments about the aircraft.

Already in the early morning of October 31, the plane will have two more regular flights: Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg - Sharm el-Sheikh. The board now accepts the following crew: experienced 48-year-old Valery Nemov, who has flown over 12,000 hours, and 45-year-old co-pilot Sergei Trukhachev, a former military pilot who served in the Chechen campaign.

217 passengers will be waiting for them on board, most of them are St. Petersburg residents, many returning home with their entire families from a long-awaited vacation in Egypt.

At 03:50:06 local time (06:50 Moscow time), flight 7K-9268 takes off from Sharm el-Sheikh, after which, following the air corridor along the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, it begins to climb.

The plane, bypassing the Sinai Peninsula, will have to arrive in St. Petersburg at 12:10 local time, on a regular Saturday afternoon in October, among dozens of other domestic and international flights listed on the Pulkovo board. But neither then, nor after several delays that were displayed on the board, the long-awaited flight 9268 never returned to its homeland.

A few days after the disaster in the skies over Egypt, Flightradar will release data on the last flight of the A321 over the Sinai. According to the report published on the website, the plane took off safely and began to gain altitude, moving parallel to the coast.

A few minutes after the liner turned deeper into the peninsula, its altitude began to drop sharply by 6,000 feet. Communication with the plane is lost.

The first media reports that the Kogalymavia Airbus plane disappeared from radar began to appear only at 10:18 Moscow time.

Short news reports vary significantly: according to the information they contain, there were from 207 to 224 people on board.

Some reports say the plane went missing near Larnaca in Cyprus.

“Flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, operated by Airbus 321 Kogalymavia, took off at 6:21 Moscow time and disappeared from radar screens after 23 minutes, there were 217 passengers and seven crew members on board,” the report said. Rosaviatsia.

Moments count - two minutes later, news appears from Arab media reporting that a Russian plane crashed in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula.

But the data is still scarce and not supported by official confirmation. Hope remains. At 10:42 Reuters and Sky News publish the first reports refuting the plane crash. Publication sources claim that the crew of the missing plane made contact in Turkey. Flightradar does not confirm the fall, specifying that the airliner sharply decreased in altitude before disappearing from the radar.

The Federal Air Transport Agency reports that they are trying to contact the flight that disappeared from radar. At 11:44 on the Pulkovo online board there is still information that the flight’s arrival from Sharm el-Sheikh is delayed (from 12:10 to 12:20).

In Pulkovo, where by that time the information about the arrival had disappeared from the display, the emergency headquarters began operational work, and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations was preparing two aircraft to be sent to Egypt. Later, the department decides to send five special aircraft to Egypt.

Search teams discovered the crash site among the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula. The wreckage of the airliner was scattered over 13 kilometers.

The search operation took place in difficult conditions: North Sinai is a closed zone, and for a year now the Egyptian army has been conducting a large-scale operation there against militants of an extremist group associated with ISIS. It was the Egyptian military, patrolling the territory, who were the first to discover the wreckage of the airliner.

The plane crashed in the En-Nahal mountain range, a deserted, waterless and deserted place. According to clarified and officially confirmed information, there were 224 people on board the plane, including seven crew members.

According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, among the passengers on the plane there were 192 adults and 25 children. They all died.

“Dear Amalia, 28 years ago you gave the world a wonderful boy. Every mother dreams of such a son and a girl dreams of such a reliable and loving man nearby. A year ago they published photographs of all the dead, I immediately remembered Armen’s face, it attracts the eye with its kind and pure smile, this is the face of a purposeful and very decent young man. I didn’t know him, but I am incredibly sorry for Armen. Such boys were obliged to live and give the world beautiful children, but, unfortunately, another world, black and evil, took his life. Strength and health to you. Thank you for such a son. I’m incredibly sorry... In loving memory of Armen and happy birthday (Tatyana Svetlova, St. Petersburg),” the relatives of those killed in the terrible plane crash continue to receive such letters a year after the tragedy. Sinai.

On October 26, a few days before the plane crash, Armen Vishnev, a native of the city of Pushkin, who served in the Federal Customs Service, turned 27 years old. Armen flew to Egypt to rest, in one of his last messages he asked his mother not to be bored, because the separation would not be long, he promised to bring a magnet or, as a joke, even a whole camel.

A year after the tragedy, Amalia carefully preserves all the photographs and messages of her son. Concerned residents of other regions of Russia and dozens of other loved ones of the victims of the plane crash help her to honor the memory and overcome the grief of loss. The tragedy united more than 36 thousand people online. Through the efforts of St. Petersburg residents, the Flight 9268 charitable foundation was created, which now provides support to people who lost loved ones in the disaster over Sinai.

“The main goal for which we have united is to perpetuate the memory of our relatives in those things that we are able to accomplish: creating a memorial and temple, preserving the memories of our loved ones, helping the families of the victims who need financial, legal and psychological support Our foundation is not just an attempt to unite around a common cause, it is a protest against terrorism, murder, cruelty and injustice. The tragedy was divided into before and after the disaster,” the foundation says.

The foundation’s group on social networks has long become a kind of spontaneous book of memory, where you can find out the latest information about the progress of the investigation into the tragedy, again see photos of all those who did not return home from the ill-fated flight, and also provide all possible assistance to family and friends.

And it’s not just about money: any support is valuable, because even after a year, practice shows: time does not heal, and a long investigation and difficult bureaucratic procedures associated with the payment of compensation only aggravate the already ongoing pain of loss.

The tragedy cut short the lives of entire families: Olga and Yuri Shein and three of their children died in the disaster. The whole country from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok was shocked to the core by the love story of Alexandra Chernova and Evgeny Yavsin who were on board the A321: Evgeny specially saved money to take Sasha to Egypt and propose to her there. And dozens of other life-long stories that were so unfairly and suddenly ended on that ill-fated October morning.

Most of the passengers of the crashed A321 were residents of the North-West of Russia, mainly from St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions. Also on board were four citizens of Ukraine and one citizen of Belarus. The youngest passenger, Darina Gromova, was only 10 months old; her photograph, posted by her mother on social networks shortly before the disaster and subsequently published by many world publications, became an unspoken symbol of the tragedy.

A year after the plane crash, not all the relatives of the victims of the A321 crash were able to bury their relatives: six of those killed in the crash over Sinai have still not been identified. According to the chairman of the board of the Flight 9268 charitable foundation, Irina Zakharova, the remains, which are currently stored in the crematorium on Shafirovsky Prospekt, are not subject to examination. However, families still have hope of receiving fragments of the bodies of their dead relatives: in Egypt, after the completion of the main stage of the investigation, new remains were discovered, they are now being studied.

The report of the international commission investigating the crash of the Russian A321 over the Sinai has not yet been made public: according to a source in the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, experts will talk about the preliminary results of their work (and this is a year after the investigation) “within 60 days.”

“Certain technical analyzes are currently being carried out, after which a preliminary report will be made public,” a representative of the Egyptian Ministry of Aviation told the media on October 26.

Let us remind you that representatives from six countries are taking part in the investigation into the causes of the disaster: Egypt, Russia, as well as specialists from France, Germany, Ireland and the USA. Its progress in accordance with the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is supervised by the Egyptian aviation authorities.

One of the first versions of the disaster was the assumption that the Russian plane could have been shot down by a missile fired by militants operating in the North Sinai region. However, this assumption was almost immediately refuted by experts as untenable. For a long time, experts worked on another probable cause of the crash of the Kogalymavia airliner - a version of technical problems. This was announced on the day of the crash by the operational services of Egypt following a preliminary inspection of the wreckage of the plane. At the initial stage of the investigation, Russian experts were also inclined towards this version.

Representatives of Kogalymavia (Metrojet trademark) were the first to refute it: already on November 2, the airline’s press secretary, Alexander Smirnov, ruled out a technical malfunction and pilot error as the causes of the disaster and announced an “external influence” on the airliner. He stressed that the aircraft, which the airline owned under lease, was 100% ready to fly and that its crew was “very experienced.” The company representative supported his speech with certificates received by the airline at the beginning of 2015. He also stated that the plane's engine was checked on October 26, five days before the crash.

On November 7, the IAC reported that until the recording on the recorders stopped, the flight was proceeding as normal; no information about failures of the aircraft’s systems and components was recorded.

At a meeting in the Kremlin on November 16, the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, officially announced for the first time that the cause of the crash was a terrorist attack. Versions about third-party interference with links to various sources were previously published in foreign and Russian media.

“We can definitely say that this is a terrorist act. According to our experts, an improvised explosive device with a capacity of up to 1 kg in TNT equivalent went off on board the aircraft in flight, which resulted in the aircraft falling apart in the air, which explains the scattering of parts of the aircraft fuselage over a large distance," Bortnikov said, adding that traces of foreign-made explosives were found on the debris and things.

Bortnikov explained that the conclusions were made by specialists after a thorough examination of personal belongings, luggage of passengers and parts of the crashed airliner.

It was initially believed that the explosive device was planted under the passenger seat of 30A or 31A. However, in September 2016, data from the commission were made public, according to which the explosion occurred in the tail section, in the compartment for oversized luggage. A timed bomb was hidden among the baby strollers. Experts came to this conclusion after analyzing the layout of the collected fragments of the A321 in the hangar at Cairo airport. Due to the explosion, the plane lost its tail section, after which it went into an uncontrolled dive.

The investigation into the tragedy is progressing very slowly, and all the circumstances of what happened are still unknown.

The Egyptian cell of the Islamic State group banned in Russia almost immediately took responsibility for the crash of the Russian plane. Airport employees could have carried the explosive device on board - numerous evidence of the weak level of security in the air harbor immediately after the tragedy flooded the Internet: many tourists said that for a small bribe they calmly carried bags with things through all the security cordons, and no one inspected them.

However, the Egyptian side for a long time insisted on the version of a technical malfunction, refusing to acknowledge the possibility of a terrorist attack on board the liner.

In December 2015, the Technical Investigation Committee issued a statement saying that Cairo had found no indications of terrorist involvement in the Airbus 321 crash.

It was only in February 2016 that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi admitted for the first time that the cause of the crash of a Russian plane in the skies over Sinai was a terrorist attack. The head of state stated this at the presentation of a report on the country’s development until 2030.

On August 30, 2016, it was announced that Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani, who was allegedly the organizer of the terrorist attack, had been killed in Aleppo, Syria.

Air traffic with Egypt, which was stopped immediately after the A321 crash, has not yet been restored. In accordance with the official commentary of the Russian Ministry of Transport, the situation will not change until all concerns in the field of aviation security are eliminated.

“Making a decision on the resumption of air traffic between Russia and Egypt is possible only after all the problems in the field of aviation and transport security have been eliminated. It is worth noting that the Egyptian side has made significant progress in resolving these issues and the interaction between the two countries is quite constructive,” the department noted 25 October.

In just a year, the “Garden of Memory” memorial, which will be located on Rumbolovskaya Mountain in Vsevolozhsk, will be completed and fresh flowers will bloom here. A corridor of slabs on which, in accordance with the design of the monument, will be the names of all those killed in the A321 plane crash, as well as metal structures in the form of pipes on which the wind will play, will be seen by anyone driving along the Road of Life.

On Monday, October 31, a memorial service for the victims of the A321 crash in the skies over the Sinai Peninsula will be held at St. Isaac's Cathedral. In memory of those who never returned home to their family and friends, the cathedral bell will ring 224 times.

Exactly two years ago, on October 31, 2015, the most massive air crash in terms of the number of deaths occurred in the entire history of Russia. On this day, an Airbus A321-231 airliner of a Russian airline took off from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and headed for St. Petersburg. The crew of the airliner was operating a charter flight and was taking Russian tourists home after a vacation.

The plane climbed calmly along the Gulf of Aqaba and would soon cross the Sinai Peninsula to enter European airspace. However, at the 23rd minute of the flight, communication between ground services and the aircraft was interrupted. It soon became clear that the Airbus A321-231 crashed to the ground in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula and was completely destroyed. The wreckage of the aircraft was scattered over 13 km. All 224 people on board the plane were killed.

At the time of the death of the airliner, there were seven crew members and 217 passengers. Of these, four were Ukrainians, one was Belarusian, and the rest were Russian citizens. Among them was the deputy head of Pskov and a deputy of the local legislative assembly. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the oldest passenger was 77 years old, and

the youngest victim of the tragedy was a 10-month-old.

This photograph was later circulated by many Russian and world media and became a symbol of the Sinai disaster. Diana's mother and father also died as a result of the plane crash.

The Russian President, as well as the leaders of many countries in Europe and the world, expressed condolences to the victims. The day after the plane crashed, mourning was declared in Russia. However, the French published three cartoons on the topic of the disaster, which caused a negative reaction from the Russian Federation and. In response, the French Foreign Ministry stated that “in France, journalists freely express their opinions,” while “it does not always coincide with the official position of the French authorities.”

“There were no questions about the car”

Soon after the incident, various versions of what happened began to be put forward. Almost immediately, the hypothesis that the plane crashed due to a pilot error was dismissed. The crashed Airbus was controlled by experienced pilots, and the crew commander, 48-year-old Valery Nemov, had flown over 12 thousand hours, of which more than 3860 were on the Airbus A321.

However, details of the aircraft’s operation soon became known, and it turned out that it was far from new.

It was released in the spring of 1997 and made its first flight on May 9. After this, the aircraft was transferred to the American company International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), which by May 27 leased it to the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines (MEA), which had owned it for six years. On June 2, 2003, already under tail number TC-OAE, the airliner was leased to the Turkish airline Onur Air. This structure later sub-leased the aircraft to Saudi Arabian Airlines, and from July 30 to September 29, 2010 to Syrian Cham Wings Airlines. By the spring of 2012, the TC-OAE board returned to ILFC, and by March 30, 2012, it was leased to the Russian Kogalymavia.

During the long service of the aircraft, an unpleasant incident occurred from a safety point of view. On November 16, 2001, he was flying passenger flight ME 306 on the Beirut-Cairo route and during landing at the airport in the Egyptian capital, the pilots raised his nose too high, causing the tail to drop so low that it hit the ground. None of the 88 people on board the plane (81 passengers and 7 crew members) were injured then, and the airliner itself returned to passenger routes after undergoing repairs. This information was also confirmed by representatives of Kogalymavia, assuring that the aircraft passed all the necessary checks and technical tests on time.

On the eve of departure, the ill-fated flight underwent maintenance, and the receiving crew had no questions about the car.

Interrupted message

An investigation into the causes of the tragedy was launched by several large structures from around the world, since Egypt is a very popular tourist destination among citizens of many countries. The investigation was carried out by the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Russian Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Bureau of France, the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, the Irish Air Accident Investigation Department, and the US National Transportation Safety Board.

At the same time, in accordance with international law, general management was carried out by Egyptian investigators, since the incident occurred in the airspace of this country. Already on the first of November, the previously found “black boxes” from the lost liner were deciphered. In the meantime, he opened criminal cases under Articles 263 and 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of traffic safety rules and operation of railway, air, sea and inland water transport and the subway” and “Production, storage, transportation or sale of goods and products, performance of work or provision of services that do not meet security requirements").

The UK and German airlines also interrupted flights with the Egyptian state, and France, the Netherlands and Belgium warned their citizens against flying to Sharm el-Sheikh. In addition, it announced the cancellation of night flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.

Customers not identified

And although the involvement of Kogalymavia employees in the incident over Sinai is not confirmed by facts, in the spring of 2016 it banned domestic and international flights of this airline.

According to the most frequently voiced version, the Sinai division of the terrorist “” (both organizations are banned in Russia) was behind the terrorist attack. Its members accepted responsibility for this crime shortly after the fact.

However, there are other points of view. A number of experts believe that the Qatari organization Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (a cell of the Islamic State banned in Russia) could be behind the terrorist attack. The United States also announced its trace in the tragedy.

However, the names of the specific perpetrators of the terrorist attack have not yet been established.

And on October 28, 2017, a monument to the victims of the disaster was unveiled at the Serafimovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg. In addition, among St. Petersburg residents there is an idea to erect a monument to 10-month-old Darina Gromova, which a famous sculptor has already promised to make for free.