The mystery of what caused a Russian airliner to crash in the Sinai Peninsula shortly after takeoff Saturday deepened Monday after an official from a Moscow-based aviation agency said the plane broke up in midair, killing all 224 on board.
The Daily Telegraph reported late Sunday that Egyptian officials had backed off their initial insistence that the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 went down due to a mechanical failure, with Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi saying that "an extensive and complicated technical study" was needed.
"It's very important that this issue is left alone and its causes are not speculated on," al-Sisi told a gathering of top government officials, members of the military and security forces. The investigation "will take a long time" and "needs very advanced technologies", he added.
Hours after the crash Saturday, an Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State terror group (ISIS) claimed it brought down the aircraft, which crashed in the same general area of northern Sinai where the Egyptian military and security forces have battled militants for years.
The claim, in a statement posted on social media, provided no supporting evidence. The militants are not known to be capable of downing an aircraft at cruising altitude, although there have been persistent media reports that they have acquired Russian shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft missiles that are effective against low-flying warplanes or helicopters.
An Egyptian ground service official who carried out a preflight inspection of the plane said the aircraft appeared to be in good shape. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, he said he was a member of a technical inspection team that included two Russians.
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