Detectives find traces of explosion on fuselage of A-321 plane that crashed in Egypt year ago - Investigative Committee
MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - Russian detectives investigating the A-321 bombing in Egypt a year ago have found where the explosion impacted the plane's fuselage, Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said.
"At the demand of the Russian Investigative Committee, the international commission looking into the accident laid out plane fragments on the premises of Cairo airport," Petrenko told Interfax on Monday.
Detectives examined the fragments and found where the explosion had impacted the fuselage and where it ruptured, she said.
"Results of the investigative procedure were presented to the expert commission performing forensic tests to establish circumstances of that crime. Detectives from the Russian Investigative Committee also examined the premises of Sharm el-Sheikh airport," the spokesperson said.
The Russian Investigative Committee's team is carrying on investigative procedures and "is doing the utmost to establish the identity of and to hold liable everyone involved in the deaths of those onboard that plane to one degree or another," she said.
According to detectives, the Airbus A-321 took off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport for St. Petersburg at 6:51 a.m. on October 31, 2015, and contact with the plane was lost approximately 23 minutes later. The jet was carrying 217 passengers and seven crewmembers, all of whom died in the crash. An investigative team was set up to look into the crash, and detectives and forensic specialists from the Russian Investigative Committee's central staff went to the crash site later on the same day to join the inquiry of the Egyptian authorities.
The Committee's Main Department for Investigation of High-Profile Cases opened a criminal case on the counts of a terror attack and illegal possession of explosives.
Offices of the Kogalymavia airline and the Brisco tour operator, as well as Domodedovo airport, the home port of the crashed plane, were searched and documents regarding the airline's activity and operation and technical maintenance of the plane were seized.
In addition, detectives took samples of fuel, records of the plane's preflight maintenance, and technical maintenance documents since the moment the plane's operation began. A series of examinations brought detectives to the conclusion that it was a terror attack.
Russian Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin repeatedly met with Egyptian Prosecutor General Nabil Ahmed Sadek to agree on the joint mechanism of the plane crash inquiry.
The Russian Investigative Committee and the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office signed a memorandum on mutual understanding in the terror attack inquiry in September 2016.
"The accomplished investigative procedures are the first example of an independent criminal inquiry held by Russian preliminary investigation bodies in a foreign country compliant to the provisions of the Russian Penal Procedure Code," Petrenko said.