В последний день октября 1915 года над The central part of the Sinai Peninsula was a plane crash that killed two hundred and twenty-four people, most of whom were citizens of Russia. In the entire history of aviation, this was the case of the most massive death of our compatriots on board the aircraft. The catastrophe over Sinai, the photo of which circled the world, turned out to be in the center of world attention, and a variety of assumptions were expressed about its causes.
But before we talk about the versions of what happened,which were filled with numerous reports from the scene in those days, we will try to restore the chronology of what happened. It is known that on October 31, the plane of the Russian airline Kogalymavia Airbus A A321-231 flew from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, located on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, to St. Petersburg.
The aircraft carried out charter, that isirregular flight. He was chartered by the travel company Brisco, and on board were her clients returning from a holiday on the Red Sea. Looking up from the runway at 6 hours and 52 minutes and heading for the northern capital of Russia, after twenty-three minutes of flight, he suddenly disappeared from the radar screens. It should be noted that before this, there were no reports of the occurrence of abnormal situations on board, and the disaster over Sinai was a surprise for everyone.
Urgently organized search team foundin the central part of the peninsula not far from the town of Nehel, fragments of the crashed liner, scattered over fifteen kilometers. Rescuers were forced to state that none of the passengers and crew members could not be saved. Among the dead were seven children. Immediately after the Sinai catastrophe, a statement was made by a terrorist organization ISIL, banned in our country, that it takes responsibility for what happened.
Here, perhaps, that's all.Now let's see what was the airliner who died in the sky over Egypt. Despite the fact that he was released in 1997 and managed to spend nineteen years in the sky, it was, by the standards of modern aviation, a still older aircraft, which had exhausted only forty-eight percent of its flight resource. Experts believe this age is quite acceptable. Around the world today, thousands of his peers are flying. Therefore, the assumption that the Sinai disaster occurred as a result of the wear of the liner is hardly grounded.
Journalists who commented on the event turnedattention to the fact that during the years of its life the aircraft repeatedly changed owners and leased. However, this does not give cause for concern. This practice has long been established in the field of air transport and adopted throughout the world.
Before the years of operation of the liner was not with himserious accidents, except for the only incident that occurred in November 2001. Then, completing the flight from Beirut to Cairo, and performing landing in the Egyptian capital, the plane was in an emergency situation - as a result of pilot error, excessively lifted the nose of the liner, his tail hit the concrete of the runway.
None of the passengers and crew members at the same timesuffered, and the damage received by the aircraft were eliminated. Soon its operation was resumed and after fourteen years of trouble-free operation it is difficult to assume that the disaster in the sky over the Sinai has some connection with the incident.
Often the causes of tragedies played outair, it becomes the human factor, that is, the wrong actions of the pilots, caused by their incompetence or criminal negligence. Therefore, during the investigation this option was taken into account. However, the crew failed to make any claims.
In addition, the plane was piloted that dayquite experienced pilots. The commander of the ship V. Yu. Nemov and the co-pilot S. S. Trukhachev flew a sufficient number of hours during their lives, including on airplanes of this type. In addition to the pilots, the crew also included five flight attendants.
Расследование катастрофы над Синаем It was carried out by representatives of six states: Egypt, Russia, France, the USA, Germany and Ireland. The most qualified and experienced specialists from these countries took part in its work. The very next day, the deciphering of the data contained in the flight recorders found at the scene of the accident and received only minor damage was started.
Aircraft wreckage scattered on sitea length of more than fifteen kilometers, testified that the destruction of the liner occurred even in the air. This, in turn, suggested an explosion on board. However, at the beginning of the investigation, the version of the attack was not yet dominant. As a result of purely technical faults, for example, a fuel tank or lithium batteries could explode. Similar cases have occurred in flight practice.
A week later, the first results became known.decoding recorders. According to the data provided by the chairman of the international investigative commission, Ayman al-Muqadad, in the last seconds of the recording there was clearly heard a sharp extraneous sound, the origin of which was to establish a special analysis.
Specifically, the causes of the disaster over Sinai steelknown on November 16 from a report by a representative of the Russian side, Alexander Bortnikov He said that as a result of the examination on the wreckage of the aircraft and the things of the passengers, traces of non-Russian production were found.
They irrefutably indicate thatThe board was powered by an improvised explosive device, whose power was about one kilogram in TNT equivalent. After this message, the version of the attack received a full justification.
The next day the appeal of the FSB was published.The Russian Federation to the world community and citizens of Russia, calling for assistance in identifying the identity of terrorists. As a reward for information that facilitates their capture, it indicated the amount of fifty million US dollars.
This version of the incident is not very happythe Egyptian government, as it has done serious damage to the tourism business of the country. And indeed, almost all the largest airlines in the world in those days suspended flights over the Sinai territory, until the final clarification of the circumstances of the incident.
Saying that will take into account the messageRussian experts, established by the Egyptian authorities, the investigative commission in December 2015, nevertheless announced that, after conducting a comprehensive study of the circumstances of the case, it did not find confirmation of the intrusion of unauthorized persons on board the aircraft, as well as evidence of the terrorist act.
Это было тем более странно, что, по сообщению US military, their reconnaissance satellite recorded a heat flash in the air at the time of the airbus accident. At the same time, these observations exclude a rocket from entering the aircraft, since in this case its thermal trace would be recorded. A crash as a result of an emergency landing is excluded by the fact that the flash was seen in the air, and not on the ground.
The same version is followed by private analysts.American company Stratfor, specializing in technical expertise. They also recognized the most likely cause of the explosion on board, although they did not give a final conclusion about its cause.
In November, messages appeared on the print pages.that the specialists were able to divide the traces of injuries suffered by the victims of the Sinai disaster into two groups - those caused by the fall, and those that carry obvious signs of an explosion. It was very important. As a result, after identifying the remains of the passengers and taking into account which of them was in which place, according to the purchased tickets, it was possible to establish with a fairly high degree of certainty the place where the explosive device was laid.
But even after that the question is, as a resultwhat happened to the disaster over Sinai, the photo of the victims of which shocked the world community, remains open. As mentioned above, the main opponent of the version of the attack was the government of Egypt. It was extremely unprofitable for him to admit the truth about why the disaster occurred over Sinai. The version, which is banned by the Egyptian authorities and practically not covered in the local media, nevertheless received a number of indirect confirmations. We give just one example.
According to a number of foreign informationAgencies know that immediately after what happened at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, the Egyptian authorities made a number of detentions of those suspected of involvement in the crash. Total detained seventeen people. In addition, two more officers were put on the wanted list who were responsible for scanning the baggage of passengers and disappeared without a trace after the accident. This information came from the staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the country and was not classified at first.
However, after some time, high-rankinggovernment representatives came out with its categorical denial, arguing that they have not and had no reason to see the cause of what happened in the terrorist act. They, with constant persistence, continue to say that the crash over Sinai was the result of a technical malfunction of the aircraft, and therefore, it was the airline’s fault.
Their position can only be explained by the fact that, inin case of recognition of the negligence of airport employees or their direct collusion with the criminals, as a result of which explosives were carried aboard the aircraft, the state would be blamed for the incident. It is clear that such an outcome of the case is fraught with the payment of compensation to the families of the victims and the injured airline, as well as the loss of the flow of tourists to the resorts of the country and many other negative consequences.
Но тем не менее катастрофа над Синаем, фото which did not go in those days with television screens all over the world, had extremely negative consequences for the economy of Egypt. Already on November 4, the governments of Great Britain and Ireland banned their airlines from flying over the territory of Sinai and flying to Sharm el-Sheikh from any direction.
Next day with a similar initiativeThe representatives of the aviation authorities of the USA and Germany spoke. The governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and France did not impose bans, but through the media warned their citizens about the undesirability of flying to Egyptian resorts due to possible terrorist attacks, one of which resulted in the Sinai disaster. The photos of those who died more eloquently than any words were convinced of the validity of such warnings, and the flow of tourists to the Red Sea coast was reduced to a minimum.
An appropriate reaction followed and withthe Russian side. It was she who suffered the brunt of the losses, since the victims of the Sinai disaster, with the exception of five people, were its citizens. In addition to the Russians, there were four citizens of Ukraine and one citizen of Belarus on board. Most of the passengers were residents of St. Petersburg, as well as Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod regions.
In view of the incident, on November 6, Russian President V.V. Putin signed a decree on the suspension of air traffic with Egypt until the establishment of an adequate level of flight safety. That order took effect that evening. The only exceptions were flights organized for the export of Russian tourists who have completed their rest. But in this case too, increased anti-terrorism measures were taken. It was possible to take on board only hand luggage, and all other luggage was delivered separately by EMERCOM planes.
In addition to the suspension of flights, morea whole series of emergency actions caused by the Sinai disaster. The list of the dead was so great that what happened immediately caused a resonance in the widest sections of society. In response to the indignation of Russians by the actions of terrorists, the President of the Russian Federation, speaking at a meeting on the results of the investigation, set the task for the relevant services to find those responsible for the crime committed for prosecution.
Following this, the Minister of Defense of Russia S.Shoigu during the negotiations with the President of Egypt, summing up the investigation, said that the Russian side has data according to which the disaster over Sinai was organized by the Vilayat-Sinai terrorist group, part of the ISIL organization banned in our country.
In a sign of national grief about the victims of the terrorist attack,which became one of the largest in recent years, November 1 mourning was declared. In St. Petersburg itself, where most of the dead lived, it lasted for three days. In addition, the governor of the city G. Poltavchenko took the initiative to create a memorial in memory of those whose lives were destroyed by the disaster over Sinai.
"Save the memory of what happened - you will be able toto avoid this in the future ”- this time-tested truth should also serve in the fight against one of the main problems of the 21st century - terrorism. Not without reason, the presidential press secretary D. Peskov, speaking at a meeting with journalists organized in March, stressed that the order to search for criminals, given by V. Putin to the Minister of Defense, is indefinite and their crime will never be forgotten.
