Russian airliner with 224 crashes in central Sinai, Egypt

A Russian Airliner Kogalymavia, flight KGL9268 Airbus A-321, which took off from the Red Sea resort Sharm el-Shiekh on its way to St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Russian airport, has crashed in central Sinai at 06:51Moscow time (03:51GMT) with more than 217 Russian tourists including 17 children and 7 crew on board.

Egyptian authorities located the wreckage of the plane and has rushed over 20 ambulances to the scene.

The plane was split into two parts the small tail end that burned but the larger part that crashed into a rock. Rescuers have found the black box, which could give vital clues about what actually happened. Metronet named the pilot as Valery Nemov who had 12,000 hours flying experience. The Airbus manufactured in 1997 had amassed 56,000flight hours in 21,000 flights and had a factory maintenance service in 2014.

Lufthansa the German carrier said it would avoid flying over Sinai militants who possess shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile (Manpad).