Why Did Not UK Share Intel Data on Russian Plane Crash in Egypt?

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Monday that the crash of the Russian A321 plane en route from Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg could have been caused by a terrorist attack.

The London authorities provided Moscow with a dossier of intelligence data about the A321 plane crash but stated that the UK will not be able to reveal all the national intelligence information related to the tragedy.

The UK intelligence said that there was a bomb brought on the plane that caused the crash of the aircraft. The version was announced before the Russian and the Egyptian investigation into the catastrophe was completed.

In response to the question of a Sputnik Radio correspondent on why the UK did not share any of the intelligence data with Russia before making such conclusions, former UK Minister of State for the Armed Forces Doug Henderson said that not all intelligence data can be shared with other countries and that access to particular intelligence information can be restricted.

Nevertheless, he mentioned that there should be a principle allowing maximum sharing of intelligence information among the countries fighting terrorism.

“I think that a principle has to be adopted that there should be maximum sharing of intelligence among those nations in the world who accept a democratic system and who want to counter terrorism,” Henderson said.

On October 31, the biggest tragedy in the history of Russian civil aviation occurred when the Airbus A321 operated by Russia's Kogalymavia with 224 people on board crashed in the Sinai Peninsula en route from Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, killing all people on board.

“I think that when any of the nations who should work together on that have access to that information then it should be shared as widely as possible. Clearly, you cannot share it so widely that it might perhaps leak to those who are about to commit crimes of terrorism,” the former minister added.

According to Henderson, Egypt is among those countries with a high risk of terrorism. In some areas, the country has weak forms of security which have to be strengthened, the politician claimed.

“There is a need for a much clearer and more effective system of security in airports in some of the areas, and for instance in Sinai,” Henderson said.

Earlier a whole array of security gaps at the airport of the Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh was reportedly revealed by the airport’s security officials.

Henderson argued that if the crash was an accident, everything possible will be done to try to prevent such accidents from taking place in the future. But if it was an act of terrorism, it would be much more difficult because the forms of terrorism tend to change, making it hard for intelligence services to prevent imminent attacks.