Bomb possibly felled plane, 2 say
U.S., British sources cite intercepted messages in Egypt crash
LONDON — British and U.S. officials said Wednesday that they have information that the Russian jetliner that crashed in the Egyptian desert may have been taken down by a bomb, and Britain said it was suspending flights to and from the Sinai Peninsula as a precaution.
Intercepted communications played a role in the tentative conclusion that the Islamic State group’s Sinai affiliate planted an explosive on the plane, said a U.S. official briefed on the matter. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss intelligence matters publicly.
The official and others said there had been no formal judgment rendered by the CIA or other intelligence agencies, and that forensic evidence from the crash site — including the airplane’s black box — was still being analyzed.
The official added that intelligence analysts don’t believe that the operation was ordered by Islamic State leaders in Raqqa, Syria. Rather, they believe that if there was a bomb, it was planned and executed by the Islamic State’s affiliate in the Sinai, which operates autonomously.
Other officials cautioned that intercepted communications can sometimes be misleading and that it’s possible the evidence will add up to a conclusion that there was no bomb.
Meanwhile, Russian and Egyptian investigators said Wednesday that the cockpit voice recorder of the Metrojet Airbus 321-200 suffered substantial damage in the weekend crash that killed 224 people. Information from the flight data recorder has been copied and handed over to investigators, the Russians added.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said British aviation experts were headed to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the flight originated, to assess security before British flights there would be allowed to resume.
No British flights were flying to the resort Wednesday, but several were scheduled to depart.
Cameron’s office said in a statement that it could not say “categorically” why the Russian jet had crashed.
“But as more information has come to light, we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device,” it said.
The British government’s crisis committee was meeting Wednesday to review the situation. Cameron discussed the issue of security at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who flew to Britain on Wednesday for an official visit.
The British disclosures would contradict el-Sissi, who had insisted in an interview Tuesday with the BBC that the security situation in the Sinai Peninsula is under “full control.” He has staked his legitimacy on restoring stability and reviving Egypt’s economy.
The suspension of flights would be a further blow to Egypt’s troubled tourism industry, which has suffered in the unrest that followed the 2011 Arab Spring. The one bright spot for Egypt has been tourism at the Red Sea resorts.
British Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the British experts would “ensure the right security measures are in place for flights.”
The Irish Aviation Authority followed the British lead and directed Irish airlines to suspend flights to Sharm elSheikh Airport and into the airspace of the Sinai Peninsula “until further notice.”
The British acted “too soon,” said Hany Ramsay, deputy head of Sharm elSheikh’s airport.
“Other countries might soon follow them,” Ramsay said. “They want to hurt tourism and cause confusion.”
The Metrojet flight carrying mostly Russian vacationers from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg broke up in the air at an altitude of 31,000 feet 23 minutes after takeoff and went down in the Sinai desert, Russian officials said.
Two U.S. officials said Tuesday that U.S. satellite imagery detected heat around the jet just before it went down.
The infrared activity could mean many things, including a bomb blast or an engine on the plane exploding because of a malfunction. One of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the information publicly, said a missile striking the jetliner has been ruled out because neither a missile launch nor an engine burn had been detected.
The Islamic State group claimed that it had downed the plane because of Moscow’s recent military intervention in Syria against the extremist group, but el-Sissi dismissed that as “propaganda” aimed at damaging Egypt’s image.