Egypt doesn’t eliminate any possibilities regarding cause of Russian plane crash

The Egyptian investigative committee inquiring the 31 October crash of a Russian plane in Sinai said on Tuesday it has not ruled out any possibilities regarding the cause of the crash.

The statement came one day after the committee released a preliminary report saying there was no clear evidence to indicate the flight was downed by a terrorist bomb.

“The preliminary report does not by any means rule out any possible scenarios surrounding the cause of the crash,” the Tuesday statement said.

The statement added that “in case the committee discovers any evidence during the investigation or receives any documented information about unlawful interference, the technical investigation would come to an end and the entire case would be handed over to the public prosecutor.”

The public prosecutor is the entity responsible for investigating criminal cases.

Following the release of the preliminary report on Monday, the Kremlin released a statement pointing to the findings of Russians investigators released last month, which indicate that a bomb was responsible for downing the Airbus A321 over Sinai en route to Russia from Egypt and killing all 224 people on board.

“I can only remind you that the report of our experts from the corresponding special services concluded that this was a terrorist act,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Sputnik.

Shortly after the crash, ISIS-affiliate Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis claimed it was responsible for downing the flight.

source:Ahram Online