MOSCOW— The break-up of a Russian passenger jet in mid-flight over the Sinai peninsula was not caused by malfunction or pilot error, the airline said Monday, deepening the mystery over the disaster but leaving open probes into some kind of possible plot or attack.
The latest statements in Moscow gave no clear indications of the direction of the investigations into Saturday’s crash that killed all 224 aboard, and raised questions about how the airline drew its conclusions ahead of a full analysis of the wreckage and flight recorder.
But the comments appeared to reinforce suspicions that experts were digging deeper into possible terrorist-linked scenarios in a region with various militant factions including the Islamic State. Russia says the group is one of the targets of Moscow’s military intervention in Syria.
Alexander Smirnov, deputy general director of the airline, insisted the tragedy could only be the result of some “mechanical impact on the aircraft.”
Putin called the crash an “enormous tragedy.”
“The plane was in excellent condition,” Smirnov told the news conference. “We rule out a technical fault and any mistake by the crew.”
Smirnov said the crash could not have occurred because of either a fuel problem or engine failure, as neither would lead to the plane breaking up in midair. He declined to elaborate on the theory of an “impact.”
The statement, however, could further draw attention to claims by the Islamic State-linked faction in the Sinai that it brought down the Metrojet Airbus 321-200 — an assertion quickly dismissed by Russian officials but leading some international carriers to reroute flights away from the Sinai.
Some defense experts also have raised strong doubts over whether the Islamic State would have missile systems capable to hitting an airliner at 31,000 feet.
“It’s unlikely, but I wouldn’t rule it out,” Clapper told reporters.
Nicholas Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, echoed Clapper’s assessment, also stressing that no credible terrorism links existed “at this point” in the probe.
Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, called for a thorough investigation into the crash of the St. Petersburg-bound plane, which crashed about 22 minutes into the flight from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.
“The key task is to investigate in detail what caused the tragedy,” Medvedev said in remarks shown by Rossiya-24 state television.
In Egypt, the prime minister’s office said the search for wreckage is likely to end Monday, and experts from Russia, Egypt and the airline will examine the recovered flight recorder.
Meanwhile, an emergency ministry plane with the remains of 144 victims of the crash arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city .
In St. Petersburg, two white trucks ferried the remains of the passengers of Kogalymavia Flight 9268 from the tarmac to a city crematorium for identification by relatives. The government of St. Petersburg extended an official period of mourning through Monday, and makeshift memorials have appeared at the city’s main Pulkovo airport.
In Russia, the crash is being called the deadliest aviation disaster in the country’s history.
The repatriation of the remains came as Russian labor officials said Monday that Kogalymavia, the airline managing the charter flight, using the name Metrojet, had not paid its employees in the last two months due to financial difficulties.
“The size of the debt is being assessed,” the press service for Rostrud, Russia’s Federal Labor Agency, wrote in a statement. Russian airlines are in severe financial distress because of the country’s economic crisis, and Transaero, Russia’s second-biggest airline, was grounded after filing for bankruptcy this month.
At the press conference, representatives for Kogalymavia confirmed they had held wages from employees, but denied that could have led to reduced safety standards.
Russian charter and domestic airlines have long had a spotty safety record, and a pilot on the Metrojet flight complained to his wife about the condition of the Airbus 321-200 shortly before take-off, Russian state television reported.
However, the pilot did not send an SOS signal before the crash, Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said, and the plane broke up in midair, spreading debris over seven square miles, according to a senior Russian aviation official on a visit to the crash site this weekend.
Metrojet officials said the same jetliner sustained damage when the tail struck the runway during a landing in Cairo in 2001, but was repaired by Airbus and regularly inspected since then. At the time, the aircraft serviced flights run by Middle East Airlines.
Modern planes do not usually fall apart in flight, barring an explosion caused by a bomb or missile, but Viktor Sorochenko, an official with Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee, said it is too early to tell what caused the crash.
The plane crashed in a remote area of central Sinai, a large desert expanse where Islamist militants are waging a violent anti-government insurgency.
The crash occurred just weeks after Russian warplanes began targeting rebel positions in Syria, and the Islamic State’s Sinai affiliate was quick to seize the opportunity to declare that it had shot down the plane in retaliation.
Both Russian and Egyptian officials have denied claims by the Islamic State militant group that it had downed the plane, however.
Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov was in Egypt with a team of experts to help with the investigation, but said “little information” had been gathered so far, the Reuters news agency reported Sunday.
Egyptian officials said the Civil Aviation Ministry was analyzing data from two recovered flight recorders now at the ministry headquarters in Cairo.
Four major international airlines and a regional carrier announced they would avoid flying over Sinai until investigators know what caused the crash of Flight 9268. The move by Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, Qatar Airways and the Dubai-based Emirates and FlyDubai airlines to divert flights from Sinai’s airspace underscored growing international concerns about the jihadists’ reach in the region.
The only U.S. airline that flies in the region, United, does “not see a need” to change its routes at this time, a spokesman said Sunday.
Germany’s Transportation Ministry urged the country’s airlines not to use the route the Russian plane was flying when it crashed, according to the Associated Press. Before the crash, the ministry had issued a warning to airlines about flying over the northern part of the peninsula, which is a militant stronghold.
The Islamic State’s local affiliate is believed by security experts to possess shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that can hit low-flying aircraft in the area. But those weapons systems are not capable of hitting aircraft above 10,000 feet, analysts say.
In July 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a warhead fired from a Russian-built Buk missile system, Dutch investigators said. That plane was flying at 33,000 feet after its departure from Amsterdam airport.
If militants in the Sinai were responsible for the destruction of the Russian airliner Saturday, they could only have done so with the acquisition of a similar sophisticated weapons system — or through the placement of a bomb while the plane was still on the ground.
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