The Russian Plane Crash was Irish, and took off from Egypt*

Oct31

The Russian Plane Crash was Irish, and took off from Egypt*

The passenger jet that crashed shortly after take-off in Egypt today was registered and owned in Ireland.

The Metrojet Airbus A321-200 (registration EI-ETJ) is listed in the Irish Aviation Authority’s (IAA) Register of Aircraft as being owned Wilmington Trust SP Services Dublin Ltd with offices in the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at George’s Dock in Dublin.

It is known the jet visited Shannon, Dublin and Cork Airports previously.

The 18-year-old jet was operating flight KGL-9268/7K-9268 from Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt to St. Petersburg in Russia. There were 217 passengers and 7 crew on board.

It’s understood that the aircraft was still climbing to its cruising altitude and had passed 30,000 feet over the Sinai Peninsula when it disappeared from radar.

Wreckage of the jet was later located in a mountainous area about 40 kilometres south south of Al-Arish.

There had been conflicting reports initially suggesting the jet had disappeared over Cyprus. Later however, Egypt’s Prime Minister confirmed the aircraft had crashed.

Wreckage and dozens of bodies have been recovered while the jet’s black boxes are also understood to have been found.

The Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya confirmed in a statement that flight KGL-9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 6:51am Moscow time (3:51am GMT) and was travelling to St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport.

Rosaviatsiya added that the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off and disappeared from the radar. It’s understood the crew had requested to make an emergency landing Al-Arish.

The Airbus A321-200 jet was built in 1997 was formerly operated by Russian airline Kolavia as well as Onur Air and Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Source*

Irish authorities head to Egypt for plane crash investigation

An investigative team from the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), were en-route to Egypt on Monday.

The Irish registered jet crashed while on a flight from Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt to St Petersburg, Russia in the Sinai Peninsula shortly after take-off. All 224 on board, passengers and crew were killed in the crash.

The Metrojet Airbus A321-200 (registration EI-ETJ) is registered in the Irish Aviation Authority’s (IAA) Register of Aircraft as being owned by Wilmington Trust SP Services Dublin Ltd with offices in the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at George’s Dock in Dublin.

Registration of the plane with the IAA took place in March 2012.

“Following the acceptance of an offer of assistance, as the state of aircraft registry, to the Egyptian accident investigation authorities, the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport will send a team on Monday to Cairo, Egypt to assist in the investigation of the accident to Kolavia Flight 7K9268,” a statement issued by the authority on Sunday night said.

“The team will be made up of an Operations/Pilot Inspector and an Engineering Inspector from the AAIU, and a regulatory/operations adviser from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).”

The team was scheduled to fly out of Baldonnel on an Irish Air Corps plane.

Both black boxes form the plane have been recovered.

Updates:

UPDATE 15 (1:58 MSK) – According to Reuters, Russia’s Investigative Committee is launching a case against Kogalymavia, the operator of the crashed airliner. The company will be investigated for “violation of rules of flights and preparations for them”.

UPDATE 14 (1:28 MSK) – Rescue workers at the site: “The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part that crashed into a rock. We have extracted at least 100 bodies and the rest are still inside.”

UPDATE 13 (1:10 MSK) – Putin has expressed condolences to families of those killed and ordered an investigation into the crash. Incredibly, there are still reports of survivors that rescue workers are trying to save from the wreckage.

UPDATE 12 (1:08 MSK) – There were 217 passengers on board, including 17 children. All Russian

UPDATE 11 (1:01 MSK) – Are there survivors? RT: “Voices of trapped passengers were reportedly heard in one section of the Russia-bound Airbus 320, according to an officer at the scene.”

UPDATE 10 (12:51 MSK) – On takeoff, the pilot had sought a change of course and for a landing to be made in Cairo, a Sharm el-Sheikh airport source told RIA Novosti

UPDATE 9 (12: 48 MSK) – Wow, this is getting weird. According to RT, “Different media were prematurely giving reports of plane debris and evidence of a crash, after first believing the plane disappeared somewhere over Cyprus, but the crash was never confirmed.” 

UPDATE 8 (12:42 MSK) – Egyptian PM ‘en route’ to the crash site, according to Reuters

UPDATE 7 (12:37 MSK) – A statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry:

Urgent! The staff of the Russian Embassy in Egypt shall monitor the situation around the aircraft of the Russian airline “Kogalymavia”. As soon as further information will be received, it would be provided to the media.

UPDATE 6 (12:31 MSK) – Hilarious. The BBC says “the aircraft was flying at an altitude where it could not have been struck by something from the ground”. It was flying at 31,000 feet. MH17 was flying at 33,000 feet. Nice try though. (Sinai is home to various terrorist networks.) We’re not saying the plane was shot down, but c’mon

UPDATE 5 (12:30  MSK) – Wow, the BBC had some jerk-off on tv basically say, “well you know, Russian planes crash all the time.”

UPDATE 4 (12:28 MSK) – A map of where the plane is thought to have crashed:

UPDATE 3 (12: 19 MSK) – The plane ‘vanished’ while flying at 31,000 feet, according to Egypt’s Civil Aviation authority. The plane then fell 5,000 feet in one minute.

UPDATE 2 (12:15 MSK) – The wreckage has been found. Egyptian officials say the crash is most likely due to poor weather conditions. But we will wait for the Russian government to comment.

UPDATE 1 (12:06 MSK) – The airliner has been ‘completely destroyed’ according to Egyptian officials. No survivors likely

 

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