Sinai plane crashed. The crash of the Kogalymavia A321 aircraft was the largest in the history of Russian aviation. Flight details

Flight 9268 departed on its last flight at 03:50:06 UTC (05:50:06 local time and 06:50:06 Moscow time). At 04:13:00 the airliner sharply dropped in altitude and then disappeared from radar.

Shortly before the accident, the aircraft commander requested permission from ground services for an emergency landing in Cairo due to technical problems. However, it was no longer possible to save the aircraft. The wreckage of the airliner was discovered near the city of El-Arish - they were scattered over 13 km in an ellipse-shaped area, the area of ​​which reached 30 square meters. km.

There were 224 people on board the crashed Airbus 321, seven of them crew members. Egyptian rescuers at the scene initially reported hearing people groaning under the rubble and said they hoped to find someone who had survived, but it soon became known that no one had survived. Most of the plane's passengers were tourists returning to Russia after a vacation in Egypt. The vast majority of those on board the plane were Russians, but there were three citizens of Ukraine and one Belarusian citizen.

Among the dead were the deputy head of Pskov, who was returning from vacation with his common-law wife, as well as a participant in the TV show “Top Model in Russian” Elena Domashnyaya from St. Petersburg. 24 children died.

The youngest passenger was only ten months old; her photograph, published by many world publications, became a symbol of the tragedy over the Sinai.

Causes

In the first days after the disaster, conflicting information was received about the possible causes of the crash. Thus, Egyptian authorities said that the crew of the Airbus 321 complained of engine problems. They also put forward a version of a technical malfunction as one of the main ones. Egypt's preliminary report late last year made no mention of a terrorist attack on board the ship.

However, all the evidence pointed to the opposite.

A few hours after the accident, militants from the Islamic State banned in Russia took responsibility for the explosion.

The organizer of the explosion was called Abu Osama al-Masri, the leader of the Vilayat Sinai group, considered to be. Later, through media friendly to them, the terrorists showed photographs of an explosive device - it turned out to be a homemade bomb made from an ordinary aluminum can. ISIS militants also claimed that they were able to smuggle the device on board the plane after they found a loophole in the security system at Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

On the evening of November 16, Vladimir Putin, at a meeting following the investigation into the causes of the plane crash, said that Russia would find and punish the organizers of the terrorist attack.

“The murder of our people in Sinai is among the bloodiest in terms of the number of crime victims. And we will not wipe away the tears from our souls and hearts. This will stay with us forever. But this will not stop us from finding and punishing the criminals,” the president emphasized. - We must do this without a statute of limitations, know them all by name. We will look for them wherever they are hiding. We will find them anywhere on the planet and punish them.”

In addition, Putin ordered increased air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria. After this order, the aviation group of the Russian Air Force in Syria was strengthened, and long-range aircraft were also involved in the bombing. “Our combat aviation work in Syria must not only be continued. It must be strengthened in such a way that criminals understand that retribution is inevitable,” the president added.

"Garden of Memory"

The day before, October 30, a foundation stone was installed on Rumbolovskaya Mountain in the Leningrad Region at the site of the future monument to the victims of the “Garden of Memory” tragedy. “We plan to plant 224 trees here, according to the number of people killed in the terrorist attack over Sinai. And this garden, the “Garden of Memory,” will bloom every year, will live. And the memory of relatives, friends and fellow countrymen who flew on flight 9268 will live in our hearts,” said the regional governor.

The “Garden of Memory” project, developed by students of the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, is a corridor of slabs and metal structures with the names of all those killed in the plane crash with elements of landscape design. Thanks to the lighting system, the monument will be visible at night to those driving along the Road of Life (today this is the official name of the A128 St. Petersburg - Morier highway). The grand opening of the “Garden of Memory” will take place a year later, on the eve of the second anniversary of the Egyptian tragedy.

The day before, relatives of the victims literally covered the monument laid in St. Petersburg with flowers.

They don’t have long to wait for the first results of the investigation into the tragedy over Sinai: the preliminary results of the investigation, according to a source of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan in the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, will be published within the next 60 days.

On October 31, 2015, the Russian airliner A321 crashed as a result of a terrorist attack in Egypt.

Exactly a year ago, October 31, 2015, over the Sinai Peninsula. The disaster, which became the largest in the history of Soviet and Russian aviation, claimed the lives of 224 people.

Most of them are residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. A year after the tragedy, not all the relatives of the victims were able to bury their loved ones. Until now, St. Petersburg residents are waiting for official and final results of the investigation into the disaster from the Egyptian side. And they literally learn to live again.

On October 30, Airbus 321-231 of Kogalymavia airlines safely completed two flights on the route Sharm el-Sheikh - Samara - Sharm el-Sheikh.

The handing over crew, PIC Dmitry Zhigalkovich, and co-pilot Yuri Yushkoinne do not make any comments about the aircraft.

Already in the early morning of October 31, the plane will have two more regular flights: Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg - Sharm el-Sheikh. The following crew is already on board: experienced 48-year-old Valery Nemov, who has flown over 12,000 hours, and 45-year-old co-pilot Sergei Trukhachev, a former military pilot who served in the Chechen campaign.

217 passengers will be waiting for them on board, most of them are St. Petersburg residents, many returning home with their entire families from a long-awaited vacation in Egypt.

At 03:50:06 local time (06:50 Moscow time), flight 7K-9268 takes off from Sharm el-Sheikh, after which, following the air corridor along the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, it begins to climb.

The plane, bypassing the Sinai Peninsula, will have to arrive in St. Petersburg at 12:10 local time, on a regular Saturday afternoon in October, among dozens of other domestic and international flights listed on the Pulkovo board. But neither then, nor after several delays that were displayed on the board, the long-awaited flight 9268 never returned to its homeland.

A few days after the disaster in the skies over Egypt, Flightradar will release data on the last flight of the A321 over the Sinai. According to the report published on the website, the plane took off safely and began to gain altitude, moving parallel to the coast.

A few minutes after the liner turned deeper into the peninsula, its altitude began to drop sharply by 6,000 feet. Communication with the plane is lost.

The first media reports that the Kogalymavia Airbus plane disappeared from radar began to appear only at 10:18 Moscow time.

Short news reports vary significantly: according to the information they contain, there were from 207 to 224 people on board.

Some reports say the plane went missing near Larnaca in Cyprus.

“Flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, operated by Airbus 321 Kogalymavia, took off at 6:21 Moscow time and disappeared from radar screens after 23 minutes, there were 217 passengers and seven crew members on board,” the report said. Rosaviatsia.

Moments count - two minutes later news appears from Arab media, reporting that a Russian plane crashed in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula.

But the data is still scarce and not supported by official confirmation. Hope remains. At 10:42 Reuters and Sky News publish the first reports refuting the plane crash. Publication sources claim that the crew of the missing plane made contact in Turkey. Flightradar does not confirm the fall either, specifying that the airliner sharply decreased in altitude before disappearing from the radar.

The Federal Air Transport Agency reports that they are trying to contact the flight that disappeared from radar. At 11:44 on the Pulkovo online board there is still information that the flight’s arrival from Sharm el-Sheikh is delayed (from 12:10 to 12:20).

In Pulkovo, where by that time the information about the arrival had disappeared from the display, the emergency headquarters began operational work, and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations was preparing two aircraft to be sent to Egypt. Later, the department decides to send five special aircraft to Egypt.

Search teams discovered the crash site among the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula. The wreckage of the airliner was scattered over 13 kilometers.

The search operation took place in difficult conditions: North Sinai is a closed zone, and for a year now the Egyptian army has been conducting a large-scale operation there against militants of an extremist group associated with ISIS. It was the Egyptian military, patrolling the territory, who were the first to discover the wreckage of the airliner.

The plane crashed in the En-Nahal mountain range, a deserted, waterless and deserted place. According to clarified and officially confirmed information, there were 224 people on board the plane, including seven crew members.

According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, among the passengers on the plane there were 192 adults and 25 children. They all died.

“Dear Amalia, 28 years ago you gave the world a wonderful boy. Every mother dreams of such a son and a girl dreams of such a reliable and loving man nearby. A year ago they published photographs of all the dead, I immediately remembered Armen’s face, it attracts the eye with its kind and pure smile, this is the face of a purposeful and very decent young man. I didn’t know him, but I’m incredibly sorry for Armen. Such boys were obliged to live and give the world beautiful children. But, unfortunately, another world, black and evil, took his life. Strength and health to you. Thank you for such a son. It’s an incredible pity... In loving memory of Armen and a heavenly birthday. (Tatyana Svetlova, St. Petersburg)," - such letters, a year after the tragedy, continue to be received by the relatives of those killed in the terrible plane crash over Sinai.

On October 26, a few days before the plane crash, Armen Vishnev, a native of the city of Pushkin, who served in the Federal Customs Service, turned 27 years old. Armen flew to Egypt to rest, in one of his last messages he asked his mother not to be bored, because the separation would not be long, he promised to bring a magnet or, as a joke, even a whole camel.

A year after the tragedy, Amalia carefully preserves all the photographs and messages of her son. Concerned residents of other regions of Russia and dozens of other loved ones of the victims of the plane crash help her to honor the memory and overcome the grief of loss. The tragedy united more than 36 thousand people online. Through the efforts of St. Petersburg residents, the Flight 9268 charitable foundation was created, which now provides support to people who lost loved ones in the disaster over Sinai.

“The main goal for which we have united is to perpetuate the memory of our relatives in those things that we are able to accomplish: creating a memorial and temple, preserving the memories of our loved ones, helping the families of the victims who need financial, legal and psychological support . Our foundation is not just an attempt to rally around a common cause. It is a protest against terrorism, murder, cruelty and injustice. A long journey begins with a small step. And we take this step all together - this is precisely the goal set by the people whose lives The tragedy was divided into before and after the disaster,” the foundation says.

The foundation’s group on social networks has long become a kind of spontaneous book of memory, where you can find out the latest information about the progress of the investigation into the tragedy, again see photos of all those who did not return home from the ill-fated flight, and also provide all possible assistance to family and friends.

And it’s not just about money: any support is valuable, because even after a year, practice shows: time does not heal, and the long investigation and difficult bureaucratic procedures associated with the payment of compensation only aggravate the already ongoing pain of loss.

The tragedy cut short the lives of entire families: Olga and Yuri Shein and three of their children died in the disaster. The whole country from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok was shocked to the core by the love story of Alexandra Chernova and Evgeny Yavsin who were on board the A321: Evgeny specially saved money to take Sasha to Egypt and propose to her there. And dozens of other life-long stories that were so unfairly and suddenly ended on that ill-fated October morning.

Most of the passengers of the crashed A321 were residents of the North-West of Russia, mainly from St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions. Also on board were four citizens of Ukraine and one citizen of Belarus. The youngest passenger, Darina Gromova, was only 10 months old; her photograph, posted by her mother on social networks shortly before the disaster and subsequently published by many world publications, became an unspoken symbol of the tragedy.

A year after the plane crash, not all the relatives of the victims of the A321 crash were able to bury their relatives: six of those killed in the crash over Sinai have still not been identified. According to the chairman of the board of the Flight 9268 charitable foundation, Irina Zakharova, the remains, which are currently stored in the crematorium on Shafirovsky Prospekt, are not subject to examination. However, families still have hope of receiving fragments of the bodies of their dead relatives: in Egypt, after the completion of the main stage of the investigation, new remains were discovered, they are now being studied.

The report of the international commission investigating the crash of the Russian A321 over the Sinai has not yet been made public: according to a source in the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, experts will talk about the preliminary results of their work (and this is a year after the investigation) “within 60 days.”

“Certain technical analyzes are currently being carried out, after which a preliminary report will be made public,” a representative of the Egyptian Ministry of Aviation told the media on October 26.

Let us remind you that representatives from six countries are taking part in the investigation into the causes of the disaster: Egypt, Russia, as well as specialists from France, Germany, Ireland and the USA. Its progress in accordance with the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is supervised by the Egyptian aviation authorities.

One of the first versions of the disaster was the assumption that the Russian plane could have been shot down by a missile fired by militants operating in the North Sinai region. However, this assumption was almost immediately refuted by experts as untenable. For a long time, experts worked on another probable cause of the crash of the Kogalymavia airliner - a version of technical problems. This was announced on the day of the crash by the operational services of Egypt following a preliminary inspection of the wreckage of the plane. At the initial stage of the investigation, Russian experts were also inclined towards this version.

Representatives of Kogalymavia (Metrojet trademark) were the first to refute it: already on November 2, the airline’s press secretary, Alexander Smirnov, ruled out a technical malfunction and pilot error as the causes of the disaster and announced an “external influence” on the airliner. He stressed that the aircraft, which the airline owned under lease, was 100% ready to fly and that its crew was “very experienced.” The company representative supported his speech with certificates received by the airline at the beginning of 2015. He also stated that the plane's engine was checked on October 26, five days before the crash.

On November 7, the IAC reported that until the recording on the recorders stopped, the flight was proceeding as normal; no information about failures of the aircraft’s systems and components was recorded.

At a meeting in the Kremlin on November 16, the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, officially announced for the first time that the cause of the crash was a terrorist attack. Versions about third-party interference with links to various sources were previously published in foreign and Russian media.

“We can definitely say that this is a terrorist act. According to our experts, an improvised explosive device with a capacity of up to 1 kg in TNT equivalent went off on board the aircraft in flight, which resulted in the aircraft falling apart in the air, which explains the scattering of parts of the aircraft fuselage over a large distance," Bortnikov said, adding that traces of foreign-made explosives were found on the debris and things.

Bortnikov explained that the conclusions were made by specialists after a thorough examination of personal belongings, luggage of passengers and parts of the crashed airliner.

It was initially believed that the explosive device was planted under the passenger seat of 30A or 31A. However, in September 2016, data from the commission were made public, according to which the explosion occurred in the tail section, in the compartment for oversized luggage. A timed bomb was hidden among the baby strollers. Experts came to this conclusion after analyzing the layout of the collected fragments of the A321 in the hangar at Cairo airport. Due to the explosion, the plane lost its tail section, after which it went into an uncontrolled dive.

The investigation into the tragedy is progressing very slowly, and all the circumstances of what happened are still unknown.

The Egyptian cell of the Islamic State group banned in Russia almost immediately took responsibility for the crash of the Russian plane. Airport employees could have carried the explosive device on board - numerous evidence of the weak level of security in the air harbor immediately after the tragedy flooded the Internet: many tourists said that for a small bribe they calmly carried bags with things through all the security cordons, and no one inspected them.

However, the Egyptian side for a long time insisted on the version of a technical malfunction, refusing to acknowledge the possibility of a terrorist attack on board the liner.

In December 2015, the Technical Investigation Committee issued a statement saying that Cairo had found no indications of terrorist involvement in the Airbus 321 crash.

It was only in February 2016 that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi admitted for the first time that the cause of the crash of a Russian plane in the skies over Sinai was a terrorist attack. The head of state stated this at the presentation of a report on the country’s development until 2030.

On August 30, 2016, it was announced that Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani, who was allegedly the organizer of the terrorist attack, had been killed in Aleppo, Syria.

Air traffic with Egypt, which was stopped immediately after the A321 crash, has not yet been restored. In accordance with the official commentary of the Russian Ministry of Transport, the situation will not change until all concerns in the field of aviation security are eliminated.

“Making a decision on the resumption of air traffic between Russia and Egypt is possible only after all the problems in the field of aviation and transport security have been eliminated. It is worth noting that the Egyptian side has made significant progress in resolving these issues and the interaction between the two countries is quite constructive,” the department noted 25 October.

In just a year, the “Garden of Memory” memorial, which will be located on Rumbolovskaya Mountain in Vsevolozhsk, will be completed and fresh flowers will bloom here. A corridor of slabs on which, in accordance with the design of the monument, will be the names of all those killed in the A321 plane crash, as well as metal structures in the form of pipes on which the wind will play, will be seen by anyone driving along the Road of Life.

On Monday, October 31, a memorial service for the victims of the A321 crash in the skies over the Sinai Peninsula will be held at St. Isaac's Cathedral. In memory of those who never returned home to their family and friends, the cathedral bell will ring 224 times.

There is still not a single reliable video or even photo from the site of the Russian plane crash in Egypt. The airliner crashed in a special zone, access to which is limited by the authorities due to a simmering conflict with local armed groups.

"Airbus A-321" of the carrier "Metrojet" - this is the company "Kogalymavia" - was operating a flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The plane disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after takeoff. In the first hours, conflicting information was received about the fate of the airliner, but now we know for sure - the airbus crashed, there were no survivors. There were 224 people on board - seven crew members and 217 passengers. There has never been such a number of casualties in the history of Russian civil aviation.

Airbus Flight 9268 flew for only 23 minutes. Much longer - several hours after it disappeared from radar - conflicting information about the fate of the liner came. It was not immediately possible to create a more or less clear picture of what happened in the skies over Sinai.

Sharm el-Sheikh airport, 5 hours 51 minutes local time (6.51 Moscow time). The Kogalymavia airbus, a charter airline known under the Metrojet brand, has taken off and is heading for St. Petersburg. There were almost no empty seats left. An experienced crew commander - 12 thousand flight hours, a third of which were on an Airbus 321. Almost immediately after takeoff, he discovered some problems on board, contacted the ground, reported the malfunctions, and asked for permission to land at the nearest airfield. At this point the session ended, and the Airbus did not make contact again. By 7:14 am Moscow time, the plane was lost by radar.

“At 7.14 I was supposed to establish a communication session with Larnaca, the Republic of Cyprus. Radio communication with the plane did not take place, it was lost. The mark on the radio radars of the dispatch services also disappeared. There were 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board the plane, mostly Russian citizens.” , - said the press secretary of the Federal Air Transport Agency Sergei Izvolsky.

According to updated data in recent hours, there were also three citizens of Ukraine and one of Belarus on board. Judging by data from the Internet resource Flytradar, the last thing the earth recorded was that the plane dropped about two kilometers in altitude a minute before disappearing from the screens. The speed also dropped sharply: from almost 750 kilometers per hour, first to 350, and then to 170 kilometers per hour! This is the last thing the transponder transmitted, and these numbers are beyond critical. A large airliner simply cannot stay in the air at such a low speed. Moreover, according to witnesses who observed the crash of the Airbus, its engine seemed to be on fire.

The plane had already crashed - it fell in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, 35 kilometers from the city of El-Arish, and the press and news agencies continued to pour out contradictory messages. Someone immediately declared the plane crashed. Then information came that he allegedly got in touch again. Then all the confusing references to Egyptian dispatchers appeared, who allegedly claimed that they had handed over the Airbus to their Turkish colleagues. But this information was not confirmed either.

Closer to noon, it became clear that the plane did not leave Egyptian airspace. The prime minister of this country canceled all trips, called an emergency meeting and announced that the plane had crashed after all. A state of emergency has been declared in Sinai. And finally, in the afternoon, it was officially announced: the wreckage had been found.

“We have sent a working group of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to the scene of the crash. It will conduct an investigation, this is a standard procedure. Of course, we are in constant contact with the Russian ambassador,” said Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail.

Those who were the first to see the crash site with their own eyes conveyed news that finally buried hope: the liner was completely destroyed, there was no chance of finding survivors. After another half hour, rescuers began to remove the bodies of the dead from the rubble. They will be delivered to Cairo, and from there they will be transported to Russia. Search efforts are complicated by the mountainous terrain and the fact that the fallen airliner was literally scattered around the area.

An Egyptian security officer described a terrible scene to Reuters: "I am witnessing a tragic scene. There are many dead bodies lying on the ground, many of them fastened with seat belts in their seats. The plane is split into two parts. The first - a small tail part - is burned, the second - the large front part crashed into the rock. We have already recovered 100 bodies, the rest are still under the rubble. We heard dozens of phones that belonged to the dead ringing, our officers collected them in a bag."

The crashed Airbus 321 was in operation for about 19 years - this is quite acceptable in civil aviation; another question is how the plane was maintained. This particular aircraft served for several years in airlines in the countries of the Middle East region: Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria. The Russian Kogalymavia acquired it in 2012.

Experts are looking into the causes of the tragedy, but photographs of the people remain. Photos of those who flew from Egypt, returned from vacation on flight 9268. And before takeoff, he managed to leave publications on social networks with the following caption, for example: “Hello, Peter, goodbye, Egypt. We are flying home.”

On the morning of October 31 at 05:50 local time (06:50 Moscow time), the plane, flying flight 7K-9268 of the Russian airline Kogalymavia, took off from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. 23 minutes after takeoff, when the plane reached an altitude of 9.4 thousand meters, an explosive device went off in the tail section. The plane split in two, the cabin depressurized and the systems completely shut down - the airliner rushed down. Two minutes after the explosion, the plane crashed to the ground at high speed in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula. All 224 people on board, including 25 children, were killed. Three hours after the crash, the local affiliate of the Islamic State* claimed responsibility for the attack.

• Airplane wreckage
• Reuters

« The magical land took them for itself"

Irina Barinova lost three loved ones in the disaster: her cousin Lyubov Mozgina with her one-year-old daughter Alisa and mother Galina Zamolotova were returning from vacation to St. Petersburg.

“Lyuba dreamed of showing Alice the country that she herself was madly in love with,” says Irina. “She and her mother were so happy that Alice would see a magical land where there was the Red Sea, the sun, and the pyramids. But the magical land took them for itself.”

According to Irina, Lyubov was not used to counting on anyone other than herself in life: she worked hard, bought a car and an apartment in St. Petersburg.

“Lyuba is from the Novgorod region, she graduated from school there and in 1993 came to go to college in St. Petersburg. A simple girl from the village, she studied and worked seven days a week. She spent days and nights preparing, always drawing something. In the morning it’s college, and in the evening and on weekends it’s work. She tried to achieve everything herself and really wanted to help her parents.”

• Relatives of the deceased passengers
• Reuters

After graduating from the institute, Lyubov got a job at a construction company as an estimator, but most of all she wanted to work at Lenenergo. “She sent her resume there and did not expect to receive an invitation to an interview, but her dream came true! In the last years of her life, Lyuba worked at Lenenergo and was in good standing with management,” recalls Irina.

RT’s interlocutor told how in 2013 she and Lyubov managed to relax in Lazarevskoye: “We walked together, swam in the sea, and then Lyuba said that she would soon become a mother. It was such a joy - beyond words! Lyuba knew from the first day that it would be a girl, and from the first day she called her by name - Alisa. All the pain in my soul cannot be expressed in words. I still can't believe it. All we can do is love them and miss them."

• Boarding pass found at the crash site of an Airbus A321
• RIA News

“Who would have thought that this was the last time I would see them?”

The tragedy over Sinai took away Galina Panchenko’s only daughter, 23-year-old Vlada, and her husband Ilya Sakerin. “They met in 2010, when Vlada graduated from school, and since then they have never been apart. We organized our own wedding and were truly happy. The three of us lived, and even with three cats - Vlada and Ilya loved animals very much. They were fond of fishing, often traveled to Karelia and even brought me fish. We rode bicycles from St. Petersburg to Lomonosov - and this is quite a distance. They were so happy about life, dreamed of buying an apartment, and planned to have children.”

• Reuters

This trip to Egypt was the third for the young Sakerin family. They went on vacation for only a week - they were in a hurry to get back in time for Vlada’s father’s birthday. Galina then accompanied the children to the airport. “Who would have thought that I would see them for the last time,” she laments.

Galina could not stay in her homeland after what happened - everything reminded her of the dead children. The decision to move to the United States permanently was not easy.

“I was left completely alone. I still can't come to terms with this. Unbearable pain. Every day I wake up and go to sleep thinking about them.”

• Airbus A321 wreckage
• RIA News

Experience the pain together

Irina Zakharova and her husband lost their only daughter in the disaster. Elvira Voskresenskaya was 28 years old.

“I can’t say about my daughter that she was. For me, she is my daughter. She was a long-awaited beloved child. The father, being a career military man, dreamed all his life about his son as the continuer of his path. When his daughter was born, at first he was somewhat disappointed, but then, already in adulthood, he was inspired and realized that his daughter became the continuer of his whole life and all his endeavors. She chose a university associated with military service and put on shoulder straps. This year she was supposed to receive the rank of major. For my father and me, she was the center of the universe. We lived by her interests, and she — ours", — Irina says, holding back tears with difficulty.

A year ago, relatives and friends of those killed in a plane crash over Sinai united in a group on a social network in which they exchanged information about the progress of the investigation and supported each other. The organizer of the group was Alexander Voitenko. On board the Airbus 321 was his older sister Irina and her daughter Alisa.

“I realized that I cannot remain silent about what happened, I cannot keep it to myself and suffer within myself. I decided to tell everyone about how I feel, what is happening around this disaster. It was possible to unite not only relatives, but also sympathizers. We created a group on the social network, which currently has more than 36 thousand people. This is already a big family, a whole movement.”

• Reuters

The group of united relatives eventually grew into the Flight 9268 charitable foundation.

“After all the funerals were over, we met for the first time in January. I remember there were about 30 of us, — recalls Alexander Voitenko, who became the executive director of the Flight 9268 Foundation. — We immediately decided that we needed our own charitable foundation to resolve legal issues related to donations. It was necessary to structure the needs.”

Irina Zakharova became chairman of the foundation's board. When asked why she decided to engage in charitable activities, Irina, the director of a school in St. Petersburg, replies:

“It’s very difficult to understand why I was doing this because I felt like I wouldn’t survive. But it turned out that I not only survived, but also became involved in the activities of the foundation. It means that I haven’t accomplished something in my life yet, since I got this.”

Irina talks about how difficult it is to come to terms with the loss of loved ones: “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, whether I will be alive. Over the past year, six people, relatives of the victims, have died, mostly due to heart attacks.”

• RIA News

Flight 9268 cooperates with other organizations - for example, with the Interrupted Flight Foundation, which was organized 10 years ago in memory of those killed in the crash of the airliner on the Anapa-St. Petersburg flight on August 22, 2006.

“We are planning to conduct a mass burial of remains that cannot be identified. Now they are in the city crematorium,” says Irina. “The examination confirmed that among these remains there is a piece of each passenger on the plane, but they are so mixed that it is almost impossible to separate. We collect signatures from loved ones agreeing to the burial. It will be very difficult to go through a second funeral.”

• Figures of cranes at a rally in memory of the victims of the plane crash over the Sinai in the Peter and Paul Fortress
• RIA News

Irina and Alexander said that the foundation plans to build a temple in St. Petersburg, inside of which there will be an atrium with photographs of the victims of the plane crash.

Kristina Oleneva, Yulia Gureeva, Maria Bukharova

• Anniversary of the Sinai tragedy: relatives of the dead passengers remember their loved ones

* “Islamic State” is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

The A321 plane crash over Sinai, which occurred on October 31, 2015, became the worst disaster in Egypt and the largest tragedy in aircraft crashes. The Airbus A321-231 aircraft, owned by the Kogalymavia company, was used by the tour operator Briscoe and carried tourists on flight 9268 Sharm al-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The crash killed 224 people.

Flight details

Airplane

Airbus A321-231 was produced in 1997. The vessel was then handed over to the owner, the leasing corporation ILFC, which leased it to MEA (Lebanon). The airliner was assigned the number F-0HMP, its capacity was 149 people. In Lebanon it was used for 6 years and was returned to ILFC in 2003.

Fact. During its use at MEA, one failure occurred - when landing in Egypt, the pilots raised the nose of the aircraft too high, and the tail touched the runway. After this, the aircraft was repaired.

In 2003, the aircraft was again leased to Onur Air Corporation (Turkey). The ship's board was modernized, its capacity increased to 220 people. In 2007, the airliner was subleasing to Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudi Arabia), and in 2010 to Cham Wings (Syria). In 2012, the airliner was leased to Kogalymavia LLC.

According to the leasing company, the aircraft was maintained at a level that complied with the standards, and technical control and inspections were carried out on time. On October 26, 2015, a weekly technical inspection was carried out, and on March 18, 2014, the aircraft underwent factory control. Over all the years of use, the airliner has exhausted 46-48% of its nominal life of scheduled flights.

Crew and passengers

The ship was staffed by a Russian crew, including:

• 2 experienced pilots,
• 5 flight attendants.

Among the passengers who were on board the plane at the time of the disaster were 192 people. adults and 25 children. The oldest of them was 77 years old, the youngest girl was 10 months old. All people died in the crash. Photos of the dead were posted on several official websites.

List of passengers killed over Sinai

Most of the victims of the disaster lived in the northwestern regions of the Russian Federation; there were also 4 citizens of Ukraine and 2 from Belarus on the plane.

The list of those killed in the plane crash included:

• A. Kopylov – deputy head of the Pskov city administration,
• D. Gromova (10 months), whose photo became a symbol of the plane crash.

Chronology of events

Preceding circumstances

On October 30, 2015, Airbus A321-231 made 2 normal flights on the planned routes: Sharm al-Sheikh-Samara-Sharm al-Sheikh. The final disembarkation of passengers at the airport was completed at 15:30, and representatives of the crew who carried it out had no complaints about the condition of the equipment. The vessel underwent scheduled maintenance, and on the morning of October 31, 2015, a new crew took over (V. Nemov and S. Trukhachev), and preparations began for subsequent voyages - Sharm al-Sheikh-St. Petersburg-Sharm al-Sheikh.

The Kogalymavia company was a member of the international united holding company specializing in tourism - TH&C, which also included the Brisco company, which ordered a flight from Egypt to the Northern capital.

Catastrophe

At 5:50 local time in Egypt (6:50 Moscow time), the plane took off from Sharm al-Sheikh airport, headed north along the shore of the bay and gradually rose to 6.4 km. After 12 minutes of flight, the plane turned left to bypass the Sinai Peninsula and reach the Mediterranean, the pilots intended to gain an altitude of 9.75 km.

In the 23rd minute of the flight, the airliner picked up a speed of 755 km/h and climbed 9.4 km when the situation left the normal mode. The ship began to fall at a speed of 1.8 km/min. At 04:13 GES, the flight recorder recording was interrupted due to extraneous noise. After 24 minutes of flight, the plane crashed in Sinai and was instantly destroyed.

Search services found the remains of the disaster among the mountain ranges of the peninsula 50 km from the city of Nekhel. The wreckage of the plane and fragments of the bodies of the dead were scattered over a radius of 13 km, over a total area of ​​30 km.

Reaction

President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin expressed words of condolences to the loved ones and relatives of the victims of the tragedy. To the Head of Government D.A. Medvedev was charged with creating a commission to investigate the causes of the plane crash. V. Putin called for finding and eliminating the terrorists responsible for the tragedy.

Condolences were expressed to the relatives of the victims, as well as to all Russians:

• presidents and prime ministers of more than 50 countries,
• Pope,
• general secretaries,
• heads of religious communities of the Russian Federation.

“Hotlines” were opened for relatives of the deceased passengers: by telephone one could find out all the information about the injured loved ones.

The scandalous French magazine Charlie Hebdo published three cartoons on its pages illustrating the plane crash, which caused sharp negative criticism from the Russian leadership and the public. The illustrations were called "blasphemous", "cruel" and "mocking towards the victims of the tragedy."

Fact. Representatives of the French Foreign Ministry responded that all journalists have the right to freely express personal opinions, but they do not always coincide with the position of the country's official leaders.

On November 20, 2015, the UN Security Council issued a statement condemning the terrorist attacks, including the disaster over Sinai.

Mourning

November 1, 2015 became a day of mourning for Russians. Three days of mourning took place in the Northern capital, and four days in the Leningrad region.

Investigation into the causes of the Sinai tragedy

The investigation into the plane crash was carried out jointly by several countries, including Egypt and the Russian Federation, as well as representatives of Airbus and IASA.

On November 1, 2015, the investigation began: analysis of the information contained in the on-board recording devices, which practically survived, and examination of the remains of the victims. In Russia, a case was initiated under articles 263 and 238 of the Criminal Code of Russia.

The fact that the remains of the airliner were found in a large area of ​​about 30 km allowed us to conclude that the tragedy occurred at a high altitude.

On November 7, 2015, the official leadership of Egypt spoke about the results of the decoding, from which it followed that extraneous loud sounds were heard at the end of the recording. At the end of the flight, an altitude of 9.415 km and a speed of about 520 km/h were recorded; the ship was moving under the guidance of an automatic pilot, who needed to gain altitude.

At that time, several versions of the causes of the plane crash were voiced:

• wear and tear of aircraft equipment;
• fuel tank ignition;
• damage to the aircraft's lithium battery.

On November 16, 2015, information was received that the plane crashed due to a terrorist act - an IED located at the rear of the airbus with a total capacity of 1 kg of TNT went off. This conclusion was made after residues of explosive substances not made in Russia were found on fragments of the plane, personal belongings and bodies of the victims.

Fact. On November 17, 2015, a public announcement was posted that a cash reward of $50 million would be paid for assistance in capturing the terrorists responsible for the plane crash.

Analysis of the remains of the aircraft showed that the IED went off in the rear of the ship, in rows 30-32.

On December 14, 2015, a special commission organized by the Egyptian leadership announced the completion of the investigation into the plane crash and the readiness of the report on it. It indicated that in the process of analyzing the causes of the tragedy, nothing was found indicating a terrorist attack. This is explained by the fact that in the opposite case, the indirect cause of the disaster would have been a flaw in the Egyptian airport security service.

At the beginning of 2016, the current head of Egypt admitted that the airliner crashed as a result of a terrorist attack.

Cause of the disaster

On November 3, 2015, it became known from sources in the US defense department that an American satellite noticed a bright flash corresponding to the location and time of the Airbus A321 accident. No evidence of being hit by the missile was recorded, as a temperature trace would have been observed. Ignition in the air indicated that the tragedy could not have occurred during landing.

A few days after the plane crash, one of the terrorist groups within ISIS announced its involvement in the incident. However, the official leadership of Egypt cited equipment malfunction as the alleged cause of the tragedy.

A number of media representatives, Russian and Egyptian heads of transport departments rejected the explosion hypothesis, calling it propaganda.

On November 5, 2015, the intelligence services of the United States and Great Britain supported the unofficial version of a terrorist attack based on information intercepted from ISIS militants about a bomb being planted on an airplane.

According to the assumptions of foreign intelligence services, expressed by various media, the IED was installed by terrorists subordinate to ISIS in the luggage compartment just before departure.

11/16/2015 at the Council of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin's version of the explosion of a homemade device was confirmed by the head of the Russian FSB A. Bortnikov.

On September 13, 2016, a special commission determined exactly where the bomb was located: in the oversized baggage section at the tail of the plane. To install the IED, the militants used the help of an employee of the Sharm al-Sheikh airport: just before the flight, a package with an explosive was planted, after which it was covered with strollers and suitcases.

Consequences of the disaster

After the tragedy, many aviation companies, including Kogalymavia, stopped flying over Sinai until the exact causes of the crash were clarified.

From 4 to 6 November 2015, the Governments of Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, Germany and other European countries suspended regular air services over the Sinai Peninsula.

11/16/2015 V.V. Putin announced that Russia will continue to look for the causes of the disaster; it is necessary to join forces and punish those responsible for the tragedy.

Fact. After the disaster in Egypt, an order was issued to intensify air strikes against the terrorist organization ISIS.

Conclusion

The plane crash over the Sinai Peninsula became the largest in the history of Russian passenger aviation. On October 23, 2017, a monument to those who died over the Sinai was erected in St. Petersburg. On October 31, 2017, a memorial to the victims was laid in Vsevolozhsk.