After suspending its flights to Sharm El Sheikh, UK evacuate 20,000 Britons tomorrow

According to the DailyMail, at least 20,000 Britons are stranded in Egypt today and could be stuck for up to ten days as the airline terror crisis escalated.

All British flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh have been cancelled and may not start again until Christmas after Downing Street said an ISIS bomb smuggled through the resort’s airport probably downed a Russian airliner at the weekend killing 224 people.

Thousands of British tourists have had their travel plans thrown into chaos and have no idea where they will stay after their holidays end and when they will be given a flight home.

Commercial airlines will fly empty to the Red Sea resort from Britain and begin flying stranded tourists back from tomorrow in a process likely to last up to ten days.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said British officials and security equipment will be sent to Sharm to screen every bag and guard planes to get everyone home safely.

But flights to Russia and Ukraine from the Egyptian holiday resort continued as normal today – despite apparently suffering the worst airline terror in its history and a British ban on all services.

Meanwhile bewildered and anxious passengers stranded in Sharm El Sheikh are demanding to know when they would be brought home.

Mr Hammond admitted Britons who have booked holidays up until Christmas are likely to have them cancelled until they work out how the bomb was planted and airport security is improved.

An emergency review by UK aviation experts has exposed serious loopholes in security procedures at the Red Sea resort where security staff were seen sleeping and waved through large bottles of liquid.

Asked if he might conclude that normal flights could never resume to Sharm, he admitted: ‘It’s a possibility’.

Britons have been told to stay in their hotels if they were due to fly home last night or today.

Tour operators have asked some to return to the airport today to be told when they can go back to Britain and where they will stay until then.

The accommodation will be paid for by airlines or tour operators who will also cover the cost of meals and other expenses.

Seven planes – including two EasyJet and one Thomas Cook – could be seen parked on the runway at Sharm airport on Thursday morning.

A flight to Ancona in Italy and one to Brusssels was also due to leave on time, an airport spokeswoman said. ‘It’s only the British planes,’ she added.

Abta said that according to the government, 3,500 UK holidaymakers were due to fly out to Sharm el Sheikh yesterday.

Paul Modley, who has been to Sharm el-Sheik seven times in the last nine years, said local people would be hit by any downturn in tourist numbers.

He is staying for the fifth time at the Royal Savoy hotel with his partner and friends, and is due to fly back to the UK with Monarch on Saturday.

The 49-year-old from Ealing, west London, said: ‘We have always felt really safe here and we still feel safe. We are sitting round the pool carrying on as normal.

‘We understand why the Government have done it, but I am really worried for the Egyptian people because – particularly in the Red Sea resorts – they are so dependent on tourism.

‘The staff at the hotel are putting on a very positive face. I do not think they fully appreciate it right now but if this carries on for some time they will start to see the impact.

‘People need to take the Government’s advice around travel. But I would hate to think that we wouldn’t be able to come back to Sharm because of local issues with terrorist cells.’

Mr Modley, who was also stranded in New York three years ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, added that he felt ‘slightly jinxed’ but that it was just ‘one of those things’.

Sarah Cotterill is among the 20,000 people stranded and was sent back to her hotel just before the flight was due to fly back.

She told BBC News: ‘We were due to fly with easyJet back to Gatwick at tea-time last night. We got to the airport and we got through security and everything and then we were queuing up to board the plane, at which point the news came through from the UK that they were grounding flights, so after spending about three hours at the airport we’ve been bussed back to our hotel, and that’s where we are at the moment.

‘At the airport we had practically no information, and there was a few members of the Egyptian staff at the airport trying to tell us what they knew, but that was practically nothing. Just as we were leaving, some embassy staff turned up and they travelled with us to the hotel.

‘While we were sat at the hotel, the lady from the embassy was telling us what was going on, but this morning we’ve not seen or heard from anybody. All we know is what we’ve managed to find on the internet, from the airline, from your website and things like that.’

Asked about whether her flight was being rescheduled, Ms Cotterill said: ‘We’ve got no idea. All we know is from easyJet’s website that it’s not likely to be today, but we don’t know when it will be.’

Asked how she would feel about getting on a plane, she said: ‘Obviously it’s worrying, but I think now that they’re putting all this in place I think it will probably be the safest plane going from anywhere, I think, because they’re going to be really checking everything because of what’s happened, so I was concerned before but now I think they’re taking the safety very seriously.’

British tourists stranded in Sharm el-Sheikh are appealing for information about when they can return home.

Adam, from Sheffield, has been staying at the Radisson Blu resort with his brother.

The pair were due to fly back to the UK with Monarch on Friday, but say they have ‘no idea whatsoever’ about what will happen. He said he had received only ‘generic information’ from the airline.

Adam, who declined to give his full name, said: ‘We have been kept in the dark a little bit. We’ve just been told all flights have been cancelled. A little bit of information would have been nice – just something.’

Having visited last year he said: ‘It definitely feels different for me. The mood is a bit tense … and it has dampened my mood a little bit.

‘I am trying my hardest to keep it at the back of my mind.’

Jared Ashworth, believed to be from Oldham, wrote on Twitter: ‘Currently on our 2nd day in Sharm. Looking at the news and wondering how much longer we have out here and if we will get home!’

Passenger Mark Herbert spoke to The Sun from a plane on the tarmac at the resort’s airport last night.

He told the newspaper: ‘They’re getting the passengers off the plane as we speak. We saw on Sky News that flights had been suspended then the captain came on.

‘He said hopefully they’d get us out of here tomorrow but they can’t guarantee it.’

Ian East, 29, from Didcot, is due to fly back on Saturday with his partner. He fears any delay could leave him out of pocket.

‘We’ve been told nothing yet,’ he said. ‘We are meant to fly home on Saturday via easyJet but are waiting to hear anything about whether we can get home. We’re hoping for some sort of contingency plan of sending planes out here to get us home, but I expect that won’t happen. I’m not sure what happens with regards to money – we’d be really stretched.’

Flights to Russia and Ukraine from the Egyptian holiday resort of Sharm El Sheikh continued as normal on Thursday, despite a British and Irish ban on all departures.

Passengers bound for Russia and Ukriane arrived as normal. They did however face long queues at security, as Egyptian officials doubled their efforts in the wake of Saturday’s disaster and subsequent critism of airport checks.

Russia today accepted it was Britain’s ‘sovereign right’ to halt its flights to and from Sharm El Sheikh, but stressed that any conclusions as to what caused the crash of the Airbus were premature.

Egypt has already accused the British government of acting prematurely.

‘We said previously and say again that the reasons and versions of what happened can only be announced by the investigation,’ said Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

‘We haven’t yet heard any announcements from the investigation. All other assumptions are not credible and are speculations.’

He refused to comment in detail on the British decision to halt fights to and from the Red Sea resort. ‘It’s their sovereign right,’ he said.

Flights to Sheremetyevo International Airport; Domodedovo International Airport and St Petersburg in Russia; Queen Alia International Airport Airport in Jordan and King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia were scheduled to take off on time on Thursday afternoon.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said ‘additional layers of baggage screening and searching’ were being put in place to get the 20,000 Britons home, but the extra checks would not be sustainable in the long-term.

‘We will do whatever is necessary. If we have to have unusual arrangements to return them – regardless of the cost, regardless of delay – we will do so,’ he told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.

But he warned that ‘normal flying activity’ will not resume between Britain and Egypt if security cannot be guaranteed under ‘robust and effective’ security screening.

Mr Hammond said: ‘We have an immediate problem to deal with – there are 20,000 British people in Sharm el-Sheikh and we have got to get them back safely.

‘We will do whatever is necessary. If we have to send in additional personnel, additional equipment.

‘If we have to have unusual handling arrangements we will do so. Regardless of the cost, regardless of the delay, regardless of the inconvenience.

‘In the longer term arrangements have to be sustainable. They have to allow for the operation of normal airline schedules.

‘We will not resume normal flying activity until we are confident there are long-term sustainable arrangements in place that make flying between the UK and Sharm el-Sheikh safe’.

Mr Hammond said the Cobra meeting of senior ministers and security officials ‘reviewed all the information that we have available from a range of sources’ about the plane crash.

He said: ‘As a result of that review we have concluded there is a significant possibility that that crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft.’

Mr Hammond said the decision to close down flights to the airport had been taken ‘very reluctantly’ and praised Egyptian authorities for ‘moving heaven and earth to meet our demands on the ground’.

The Ministry of Defence will also send a small team of military personnel to advise on security.

Stranded passengers would be returned to the UK, he said, but reassured others out there that the popular Red Sea resort itself was still considered safe.

Mr Hammond added he had spoken to his angry counterpart in Cairo, Sameh Shoukry.

‘I recognise his concern. Of course this will have a huge negative impact for Egypt. But with respect to him, he hasn’t seen all the information that we have,’ he said.

‘When we see something which we believe represents a threat to British nationals we have to act on it and the other consequences have to be dealt with.’

The Prime Minister is the first world leader to say the Russian Airbus may have been downed by a bomb hours after Islamic State issued a video boasting of bringing down the plane and warning of more attacks.

David Cameron responded by ordering the Foreign Office to warn against flying in or out of Sharm – all flights were subsequently cancelled – and he will chair a Cobra meeting this morning to discuss the crisis.

The October 31 crash, which cost 224 lives, would be the first successful airline attack by terrorists since two Russian jets were hit by Islamist extremists in 2004.

The terror alert has left 20,000 British tourists without a flight home. And it throws the travel plans of thousands more into chaos because around 900,000 Britons fly to the Red Sea every year.

As 14 UK flights to Sharm this morning were cancelled, it emerged that:

• US intelligence shows the Russian jet crash was probably caused by a bomb planted by Islamic State;
• Mr Cameron faces testing talks with the Egyptian president at Downing Street today;
• Security at airports around the world is expected to be tightened;
• The deputy head of Sharm airport said the cause of the crash was still unknown.

No specific threats have been made against British flights but there are fears it is too easy to smuggle a bomb on to a jet at Sharm airport.

Aviation experts from the Department for Transport and UK airlines will be sent to Sharm el-Sheikh to carry out intensive checks on passengers, crew, luggage and all ‘restricted areas’ of aircraft before they will be cleared for take-off.

Travel agent association ABTA said that those affected will get a full refund – or offered an alternative holiday – but not compensation.

Stranded tourists have said that they have been told to return to hotels paid for by airlines and must wait to be told when they can leave.

No flights are expected to take-off for the UK today, with the first stranded holidaymakers expected to board plans tomorrow – but only if British intelligence agencies are confident of their safety.

British airlines are flying empty plans to Sharm el-Sheikh today to prepare for the evacuation. However, the Foreign Office expects many of the 20,000 Britons in the resort to continue with their holiday.

‘A lot of people won’t want to leave,’ a source said.

‘They will want to carry on with their holiday. The issue is not with the resort but with security at the airport. We have got to make sure that when they have finished their holiday they can return home safely.’

Egypt’s Minister of Civil Aviation Hossam Kamal says Egyptian airports comply with international standards and apply airport security measures.

His remarks on Thursday come as multiple major carriers have cancelled flights to the Red Sea beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh following last weekend’s Russian plane crash.

Russia’s Airbus 321-200 was en route from the resort to St. Petersburg when it crashed 23 minutes after the take-off.

Kamal says the Sharm el-Sheikh airport is expecting 23 flights from Russia on Thursday, as well as eight from Ukraine and three from Italy. Flights are also expected from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

He says that in light of U.S. and British allegations that the Russian flight may have been downed by a bomb, “the investigation team does not have yet any evidence or data confirming this hypothesis.”

Downing Street said the information about the crash that prompted the move included ‘some that has recently come to light’.

The initial assessment of the security arrangements at Sharm el-Sheikh airport from the team of UK experts was that ‘the Egyptian authorities had stepped up their efforts but more remains to be done’, a spokesman said.

She said: ‘It is in our mutual interests to work together to do all we can to get back to normal service.’

It would take at least until Friday to get in place sufficiently secure arrangements to begin bringing tourists home – with stranded passengers being taken to hotels, she cautioned.

Andrew Weir, 25, from Northampton, flew out to Sharm to propose to his girlfriend Chloe Glanville, 24. They are due to fly back to Luton tomorrow with easyJet but now expect to be made to wait.

‘EasyJet have told us nothing,’ he said. ‘I found out from a Facebook post by my local paper. We would just like a bit of info from easyJet.

‘They’ve finally replied to my tweet asking me to call a number – which will of course cost me an arm and a leg. We’ve got insurance and our credit cards so I think we’d be fine.’

Mr Weir and his new fiance are staying at the five-star Royal Albatross Moderna in Nabq Bay.

He added: ‘There’s no real sense of panic, more just confusion. We aren’t concerned for our safety, more about how we’re going to get home.

It was reported intercepted communications played some part in a preliminary US finding that a bomb had been planted on the aircraft by IS’s Sinai affiliate – though there had been no formal conclusions drawn.

A Government source last night said: ‘The initial assessment of our experts suggests that Egypt has stepped up their security efforts but that further steps are necessary.’

Egyptian investigators have interrogated caterers who delivered food to the doomed St Petersburg-bound Airbus amid concerns that someone working in the airport may have been involved in a bomb plot.

Tests were also being carried out on the fuel pumped into the tanks of the jet to check if impurities could have caused it to explode and fall from 31,000ft.

A Number 10 spokesman said late yesterday afternoon: ‘While the investigation is still ongoing we cannot say categorically why the Russian jet crashed.

‘But as more information has come to light we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device.

‘We have decided that flights due to leave Sharm for the UK this evening will be delayed.

‘That will allow time for a team of UK aviation experts, currently travelling to Sharm, to make an assessment of the security arrangements in place at the airport and to identify whether any further action is required.’

Later yesterday evening she added: ‘The Prime Minister chaired a COBR meeting this evening to agree what steps we should take to help ensure the safety of British citizens travelling to and from Sharm el-Sheikh.

‘The Prime Minister was provided with an initial assessment of the security arrangements at Sharm el-Sheikh airport from the team of UK experts who arrived there late this afternoon. The team noted that the Egyptian authorities had stepped up their efforts but that more remains to be done.

‘Ministers agreed to temporarily suspend flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh with immediate effect. We have consular staff at the airport who are working with the operators to ensure that all those passengers who were due to leave this evening are being looked after and taken to hotels.’

She added they are going to work ‘urgently’ with airlines and the Egyptian authorities with the aim of getting some flights up and running as soon as possible  so they can get people already in Sharm el-Sheikh, either those who are due to come home or want to return early, back to the UK as soon as possible.

She said: ‘This will take time and so there will be no flights returning from Sharm el-Sheikh tomorrow.’

Downing Street declined to speculate on the likely source of the bomb, but terror experts said it ‘bore the fingerprints’ of IS, which has vowed revenge against Russia for intervening in Syria.

The decision to ground the flights was taken following advice from the British security services. UK officials in Egypt had been tasked with checking that basic security procedures were being followed.

Whitehall sources say it is more likely that it was a failure of security than of IS devising a hard-to-detect explosive.

Plots have been foiled to blow up airplanes with liquid bombs and explosives hidden inside print cartridges and shoes.

Each incident has led to enhanced security checks and procedures at airports, such as the ban on taking all but small amounts of liquid on board.

Initial claims by Islamic State fighters in the Sinai Peninsular that they shot down the Russian jet at 31,000ft with a missile have been dismissed.

But in the video released yesterday five jihadis watch a Russian-speaking fighter praising his ‘Sinai brothers’ for taking down the jet.

He warns Vladimir Putin that they will take down more planes, invade countries and kill civilians in retaliation for the Russian president’s military operations in Syria.

Moscow, which is an ally of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, started air raids against opposition groups in Syria including Islamic State on September 30.

A separate audio message posted on a Twitter account used by IS’s Egyptian affiliate said: ‘We say to the deniers and the doubters: Die in your rage. We, with God’s grace, are the ones who brought it down.’

Last night a US intelligence source claimed an ISIS bomb is the ‘most likely’ reason behind the Russian jet crash.

Security services came to the conclusion after looking back at intelligence reports gathered shortly before Saturday’s crash, which killed all 224 people on board.

An unnamed US security source said: ‘There is a definite feeling it was an explosive device planted in luggage or somewhere on the plane.’

The source told CNN while the US did know about a specific threat prior to the incident, ‘there had been additional activity in Sinai that had caught our attention.’

Last night’s affected flights included a Thomson flight to Manchester which was scheduled to take off at 6.35pm local time, an easyJet flight which was due to leave for Luton at 6.45pm, and another to London Gatwick due to leave at 7.05pm.

Thomson confirmed tonight that it has suspended flights to and from the Egyptian resort up until November 12.

In a statement, the company said: ‘Following the change in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) travel advice advising against all but essential air travel to Sharm el Sheikh, Thomson Airways can confirm it has cancelled all outbound flights to Sharm el Sheikh up to and including Thursday 12th November.

‘All customers booked to travel to Sharm el Sheikh in this period will be provided with a full refund.

‘As a priority, we are contacting customers due to travel tomorrow and ask those travelling later in the week to please bear with us as we manage this evolving situation.

‘Our experienced overseas resort team will be updating all our customers currently on holiday in Sharm el Sheikh of the change in FCO travel advice and we will be making arrangements to return these customers to the UK.’

Budget airline easyJet said it had postponed two UK-bound flights to tomorrow following the advice from Downing Street.

Around 330 easyJet passengers are affected altogether, and are being put up in hotels locally.

EasyJet said it had cancelled its flights to and from Sharm El Sheikh tomorrow and would keep future flights ‘under review, pending further advice from the Government.

A spokesman said: ‘Passengers booked to travel to Sharm El Sheikh in the next two weeks are able to request a refund, or change their flights to an alternative date or destination free of charge.’

A spokesman from the Association of British Travel Agents said: ‘We are liaising with the UK Government about the halt to flights in and out of Sharm el Sheikh airport and how we can assist our Members and customers in resort, or those due to travel out. We will provide further updates when they are available.’

The Irish Aviation Authority tonight directed Irish airlines not to fly to the area.

A statement said: ‘The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) directs Irish airline operators not to operate to/from Sharm el-Sheikh Airport, Egypt or in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula airspace until further notice.

‘An update will issue once further information becomes available.’

Earlier on Wednesday afternoon transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: ‘We have been following the investigation into the crash that took place on Saturday very closely.

‘We cannot categorically say why the Russian jet crashed but we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down as a result of an explosive device.

‘Safety will always be the priority and that is why the Prime Minister last night called President Sisi to express concern and to ensure that the tightest possible security arrangements were put in place at Sharm el-Sheikh.

‘As a precautionary measure we have decided that flights due to leave Sharm el-Sheikh this evening for the UK will be delayed and that will allow us time to ensure the right security measures are in place for flights.’

He added: ‘There have been already people sent out from the United Kingdom to review the security arrangements at the airport.

‘That is taking place. It is when that review is completed that we will allow the flights that are there tonight to depart.’

The government’s announcement came just hours after a disturbing video emerged of the smouldering wreckage of the Airbus A321.

The footage, taken around two hours after the Airbus A321 went down in the Sinai desert, surfaced as more shocking details were revealed about the last minutes of the terrified victims.

A doctor who examined around half the bodies recovered from the crash site said many had suffered horrific burns moments before their death.

His comments add further weight to evidence the Metrojet plane suffered an explosion or catastrophic fire that caused it to break up mid-air.

The doctor said around a fifth of the bodies had been badly burned, but not was not able to firmly conclude what caused the fire, he told The Daily Telegraph.

Yesterday, forensic experts said passengers sitting at the rear of the Metrojet plane had shrapnel injuries, were peppered with metal particles and suffered 90 per cent burns after a blast blew off the tail wing.

A heat flash caught on infra-red satellite pictures, taken the same time and in the same vicinity of the disaster, also indicated an explosion.

A black box recording also revealed strange sounds from the Airbus 321’s cockpit minutes before it disappeared from radar and crashed into the Sinai Peninsular.

The crew had routine exchange with air traffic controllers four minutes before the crash and had no indication of any impending problems.

But ‘sounds uncharacteristic of routine flight’ were recorded just before the disaster, an unnamed source quoted by Russian news agency Interfax said.

‘Judging by the recording, a situation on board developed suddenly and unexpectedly for the crew, and as a result the pilots did not manage to send a distress signal,’ the source added.

Passengers at the back of the plane died from blast wounds, but those at the front of the aircraft who were killed by chest and stomach injuries, multiple bones fractures, and torn inner organs, but had no sign of burning, Russian news outlet the LifeNews reported.

Meanwhile, a Russian official says families have identified the bodies of 33 victims killed in Saturday’s crash.

Meanwhile in London the visit of Mr al-Sisi has drawn strong criticism from human rights campaigners, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accusing Mr Cameron of showing ‘contempt’ for democracy by ‘rolling out the red carpet’.

Downing Street has insisted that ‘no issues are off the table’ during bilateral discussions with the former head of Egypt’s armed forces, who overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

Source: DailyMail