ABU DHABI // Emirates, Air Arabia and flydubai have begun rerouting flights to avoid the Sinai Peninsula, where a Russian passenger jet crashed on Saturday killing all 224 on board.
Etihad Airways said it would continue to operate flights over Sinai, but would avoid some areas to comply with instructions by the Egyptian authorities.
The German airline Lufthansa and Air France-KLM said on Saturday they would avoid the peninsula while they waited for clarity on what caused the crash.
Militants in Sinai who claim affiliation with ISIL said they had brought down the Airbus A321 in retaliation for Russian air strikes in Syria, but the suggestion has been widely dismissed.
The militants gave no evidence and analysts say they have no weapons that can hit an aircraft at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
FlightRadar24.com, which tracks flight routes, said that in its final seconds the plane abruptly climbed and descended rapidly, several times.
Just before contact was lost, it slowed from 750kph to 115kph, a speed at which the A321 cannot stay in the air.
“It probably rules out sabotage,” said Paul Hayes of the aviation consultancy Ascend Worldwide. “It’s probably some sort of control problem.”
The flight, operated by the Russian airline Kogalymavia under the Metrojet brand, was taking Russian and Ukrainian holidaymakers, including 17 children, home from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh to St Petersburg.
It disappeared from radar at 6.14am on Saturday, 23 minutes after take-off, and the wreckage was found strewn over a 20 square kilometre area of the Sinai south of El Arish.
The plane appeared to have broken up in the air but it was too early to talk about conclusions, Russian aviation official Viktor Sorochenko said on Sunday.
Air accident investigation teams have arrived in Egypt from Russia, France – where the Airbus was designed – and Germany, where it was built. The aircraft’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been sent to Cairo for analysis.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
* Additional reporting by Reuters
