�External� factors cause crash

Russian plane

AFP, MOSCOW: The Russian passenger jet that crashed in Egypt could only have broken up midair because of “external” factors, the airline company said Monday.
“There are no technical failures that could lead to the plane breaking up in the air,” Alexander Smirnov, director of flights at Kogalymavia charter airline told a press conference in Moscow.
He added that “the only explanation—is some kind of external action”, without giving further details.
He said the plane began falling out of control and the pilots had no time to report the emergency situation.
“The crew totally lost control and for that reason there was not one attempt to get in contact and report on the accident situation onboard,” Smirnov said.
The plane was “flying out of control—that is it wasn’t flying, it was falling,” he said.
“Apparently by that moment the plane had received significant damage to its construction that did not allow it to continue the flight.”
While stressing the need to wait for the findings of an investigation, Smirnov
said that he ruled out both a technical fault and human error. “We rule out technical faultiness of the plane, we exclude a mistake by the pilot or the crew, the so-called human factor,” he said.
He said the plane was in “excellent technical condition” at the time of the accident.
The Moscow-based airline’s technical director also ruled out that damage to the plane while it was under previous ownership could have been a factor, saying that it had been regularly checked since.
Meanwhile, a second plane carrying victims of the Russian passenger jet crash is set to leave Egypt Monday evening, Russian officials said, as relatives prepared to identify the remains of their loved ones in Saint Petersburg. Russia’s emergency situations ministry said that the second flight was scheduled to take off from Cairo at 1800 GMT, but did not give any indication of how many bodies would be on board.

 

�External� factors cause crash

Russian plane

AFP, MOSCOW: The Russian passenger jet that crashed in Egypt could only have broken up midair because of external factors, the airline company said Monday. There are no technical failures that could lead to the plane breaking up in the air, Alexander Smirnov, director of flights at Kogalymavia charter airline told a press conference in Moscow. He added that the only explanationis some kind of external action, without giving further details. He said the plane began falling out of control and the pilots had no time to report the emergency situation. The crew totally lost control and for that reason there was not one attempt to get in contact and report on the accident situation onboard, Smirnov said. The plane was flying out of controlthat is it wasnt flying, it was falling, he said. Apparently by that moment the plane had received significant damage to its construction that did not allow it to continue the flight. While stressing the need to wait for the findings of an investigation, Smirnov said that he ruled out both a technical fault and human error. We rule out technical faultiness of the plane, we exclude a mistake by the pilot or the crew, the so-called human factor, he said. He said the plane was in excellent technical condition at the time of the accident. The Moscow-based airlines technical director also ruled out that damage to the plane while it was under previous ownership could have been a factor, saying that it had been regularly checked since. Meanwhile, a second plane carrying victims of the Russian passenger jet crash is set to leave Egypt Monday evening, Russian officials said, as relatives prepared to identify the remains of their loved ones in Saint Petersburg. Russias emergency situations ministry said that the second flight was scheduled to take off from Cairo at 1800 GMT, but did not give any indication of how many bodies would be on board.