A321 Crash in Egypt: Bomb Apparently Planted by Airport Employee - Media

The explosives that caused the October 31 crash of a Russian airliner in Egypt could have been placed on board by airport personnel at Sharm el-Sheikh, a Russian newspaper wrote on Wednesday.

The bomb could have been placed under a window seat of the doomed Airbus A321, Kommersant newspaper reported, citing aviation and Federal Security Service experts in Moscow.

According to them, a section of the plane examined by FSB investigators featured a hole with the edges curved inside-out, indicating that the explosion happened inside the plane.

“The bomb apparently went off in the rear part of the cabin, close to the tail compartment. As a  result, the tail broke off and  the rest of the pane fell apart, resulting in the immediate death of all those on board due to a dramatic drop in air pressure inside the plane,” one of the experts said.

The specialists the newspaper talked to also said that the bomb could have been brought on board by some of the airport’s baggage handlers of cleaners.

The Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, earlier announced that the crash of the Russian passenger plane over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on October 31 was the result of a terrorist attack – an improvised explosive device equivalent of up to one kilogram of TNT detonated on board shortly after take-off.

Experts from the security agency are taking part in the investigation and analysis of the crash site in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, where the Airbus A321 came down 23 minutes into the flight to St. Petersburg. All 224 of those on board were killed.

The FSB, which made the statement on Tuesday, has already announced a reward of $50 million for any information about the terrorists.

All members of the airport staff in Sharm el-Sheikh are being questioned by police, but no arrests have been made so far, Reuters reported.