Moscow, Cairo Dismiss US, UK Claims that Russian Airliner Downed by Bomb

Thursday, 5 November 2015

Moscow, Cairo Dismiss US, UK Claims that Russian Airliner Downed by Bomb

Local Editor

Egypt: Luggage of the Russian plane

The Kremlin on Thursday dismissed any claims over the cause of the passenger jet crash in Egypt as "speculation" after Britain and the US said a bomb may have downed the plane.

"Any sort of version of what happened and the reasons for what happened can only be put forward by the investigation and we have not heard any announcements from the investigation yet," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

"Any other proposed explanations seem like unverified information or some sort of speculation."

Peskov said that Moscow "cannot rule out any version" of what might have caused the crash but said no definitive explanation had been presented.

British Prime Minister David Cameron's office said that authorities had "become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device".

A US official also told AFP that the possibility that a bomb may have caused the plane crash on Saturday was "a highly possible scenario".

For his part, Egypt's civil aviation minister on Thursday rejected claims by Britain and the United States that a Russian airliner that crashed in the Sinai may have been brought down by a bomb.

Investigators "have as yet no evidence or data confirming the theory" of a bomb attack, Hossam Kamal said in a statement.

The so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) takfiri group claimed that it caused the disaster.

Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said Thursday that the first recording from the black box on-board data collectors had been "received" by experts, news agencies reported.

Sokolov also said that Russia had sent Egyptian aviation authorities a proposal to conduct an "additional audit" into air safety measures in the country.

Meanwhile the first funerals of those killed in the crash were taking place in Russia on Thursday, with relatives and friends gathering to mourn their loved ones.