British fear bomb downed Russian jet

U.K. suspends flights above Sinai Peninsula

Concerns that a Russian airliner that crashed over the weekend was brought down by a bomb prompted the British government to suspend flights Wednesday to and from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

“We have concluded there is a significant possibility that the crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Wednesday night after a meeting of the government’s crisis committee about the crash that killed all 224 onboard.

British Prime Minister David Cameron warned against vacations or other non-essential travel to Egypt’s Sharm el- Sheik airport, where the Russian Metrojet flight originated.

Irish airlines were also directed Wednesday not to operate in the Sinai Peninsula “until further notice,” said Eamonn Brennan, chief executive of the Irish Aviation Authority.

An anonymous U.S. intelligence official told the Associated Press that intercepted communication played a role in a tentative conclusion that a Sinai affiliate of the Islamic State planted an explosive device on the jet.

An affiliate of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for bringing down the jet in a tweet quickly after it crashed, but U.S. and Egyptian authorities initially dismissed the claim. The group allegedly reiterated that claim Wednesday in an audio recording circulated among militant supporters online, the AP reported.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest noted that the Federal Aviation Administration has warned pilots for years to be careful flying over the Sinai, but no U.S. airlines depart from Sinai airports such as at Sharm el-Sheik.

Since March, the FAA has told U.S. airlines to fly at least 26,000 feet above Sinai to avoid shoulder-fired missiles or small arms insurgents could fire.

“If it were the last point of departure for any aircraft operating regularly in the United States, there would be a whole set of security regulations that would be imposed to ensure the safety of the traveling public,” Earnest said.

Crash investigators listened to the cockpit voice recorder and examined the flight-data recorder to determine how the Russian Metrojet plane was operating before it broke up over Egypt, but a report could take weeks to produce.

Russia’s Interfax news service, citing a source in the investigation, reported the pilots chatted normally with air-traffic controllers until four minutes before an “emergency situation occurred,” according to the AP. “Sounds uncharacteristic of a standard flight precede the moment of the airliner’s disappearance from radar screens,” Interfax said, according to AP.