Egypt Only Official Information Source on A321 Crash Probe

On Saturday, a Russian airliner carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members crashed in the Sinai Peninsula en route from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. All people on board were killed in the largest air catastrophe in Russian and Soviet history.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Egypt's aviation authority is the only official source of information on the investigation into the Russian Kogalymavia A321 airliner's crash in the northern Sinai Peninsula, the Interstate Aviation Committee said in a statement on Monday.

"The official source of information on a [plane crash] investigation is a state that has been conducting the investigation (in this case, the Egyptian aviation authorities)," the statement said, referring to the Annex 13 on aircraft accident and incident investigation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation.

According to the statement, other countries, entities or experts involved in the probe are prohibited from disclosing any information on the investigation process and its results without approval of the state conducting the investigation.

The aviation committee pledged to inform the general public on the investigation process in line with the terms of international law.

The Interstate Aviation Committee operates based on an agreement signed by Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine in 1991.