Investigations begin into cause of Russian airliner crash - in pictures

Ambulances and a military helicopter stand by to transport bodies after a plane crashed in Hassana, Egypt. A Russian aircraft carrying 224 people, including 17 children, crashed Saturday in a remote mountainous region in the Sinai Peninsula. Suliman el-Oteify / Egypt Prime Minister’s Office via AP

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, right, looks at the remains of the crashed passenger jet in Hassana, Egypt on Saturday. The prime minister said experts had confirmed that the militants could not down a plane at the 9,000 metre altitude the Airbus A321 was flying. Suliman el-Oteify / Egyptian Prime Minister’s Office via AP

Egyptian paramedics load the bodies of Russian victims of a passenger plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula, into a military plane at Kabret military air base by the Suez Canal. Egypt’s government said 15 bodies have been recovered and transferred to a morgue so far from the site of the crash. Khaled Desouki / AFP

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, right, looks at the remains of the crashed passenger jet in Hassana, Egypt on Saturday. The prime minister said experts had confirmed that the militants could not down a plane at the 9,000 metre altitude the Airbus A321 was flying. Suliman el-Oteify / Egyptian Prime Minister’s Office via AP

Debris from crashed the Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash in Sinai, Egypt. EPA

Debris from crashed the Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash in Sinai, Egypt. International investigators have begun probing why a Russian airliner carrying 224 people crashed in a mountainous area of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. EPA

Debris from crashed the Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash in Sinai, Egypt. The Egyptian government dispatched more than 45 ambulances to the crash site after the jet disappeared from radar after requesting an emergency landing. The black box has been recovered at the site. EPA

Debris from crashed the Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash in Sinai, Egypt. The Egyptian government dispatched more than 45 ambulances to the crash site after the jet disappeared from radar after requesting an emergency landing. The black box has been recovered at the site. EPA

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, third right, along with military and government officials, tour the site where a passenger plane crashed in Hassana, Egypt, on Saturday. Suliman el-Oteify / Egyptian Prime Minister’s Office via AP

Debris from crashed the Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash in Sinai, Egypt. The Egyptian government dispatched more than 45 ambulances to the crash site after the jet disappeared from radar after requesting an emergency landing. The black box has been recovered at the site. EPA

International investigators have begun probing why a Russian airliner carrying 224 people crashed in a mountainous area of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing everyone on board in one of the deadliest Airbus incidents of the past decade. As Russia on Sunday started a day of mourning for the victims, Cairo and Moscow both rejected the claim from a militant group affiliated with ISIL militants that it downed the aircraft flown by the Kogalymavia airline, operating under the name Metrojet.