Russian airliner carrying 224 has crashed in Sinai
CAIRO: A Russian airliner carrying 224 passengers and crew crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Saturday, the Egyptian civil aviation authority said.
A statement from Egyptian prime minister's office said Sherif Ismail had formed a cabinet level crisis committee to deal with the crash.
Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Hossam Kemal said it was “too soon to determine the cause” of the passenger plane crash, a cabinet statement quoted him as saying on Saturday.
The prime minister went to the scene of the crash alongside the tourism and health ministers and offered his condolences to the Russian ambassador, the statement said.
Russia's RIA news agency citing a Russian aviation authority source had reported that the passenger jet traveling from the Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh to the Russian city of St Petersburg disappeared from radar screens in airspace.
The source said the aircraft was an Airbus A-321 jet, had 224 passengers and crew on board, and was operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia.