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Maria, the mother of Alexei Alekseyev, one of the plane crash victims, mourns during his funeral in St Petersburg, Russia Associated Press

Noise heard in last second of doomed Russian plane's cockpit recording

All 224 people on board the plane, most of them Russian tourists, were killed in last week’s crash.

A NOISE WAS heard in the last second of the cockpit voice recording from the Russian plane that crashed last week in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the head of the investigation team said last night.

The statement bolstered US and British suspicions that the plane was brought down by a bomb.

However, Ayman el-Muqadem warned it was too early to say what caused the plane to apparently break up in mid-flight. Analysis of the noise was underway.

“All scenarios are being considered … it could be lithium batteries in the luggage of one of the passengers, it could be an explosion in the fuel tank, it could be fatigue in the body of the aircraft, it could be the explosion of something,” said El-Muqadem.

US and British officials have cited intelligence reports as indicating that the 31 October flight from the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg was brought down by a bomb on board.

All 224 people on board, most of them Russian tourists, were killed.

Islamic State extremists claimed they brought down the Metrojet flight, without offering proof, saying it was in retaliation for Moscow’s airstrikes that began a month earlier against fighters in Syria.

El-Muqadem said debris was found scattered across a 13-kilometre (8-mile) stretch of desert, indicating the Airbus A321-200 broke up mid-air, but initial observations don’t shed light on what caused it.

Some pieces of wreckage were still missing, while the recovered pieces will be taken to Cairo for analysis, he said.

MIdeast Egypt Russian Plane Crash Tourists wait in the departure hall to be evacuated from Sharm el-Sheikh airport, Egypt. Associated Press Associated Press

Call for help

Also yesterday, Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said countries that have suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh — which include Ireland, the UK and Russia, though the foreign minister did not specifically name them — did not share the intelligence that drove their decisions with Cairo.

Egypt “expected that the information available would be communicated to us instead of being broadcast” in the media, he said.

The crash one week ago dealt a huge blow to Egypt’s battered tourism sector, which is yet to fully recover from years of political turmoil. Russians comprise nearly a third of all tourists who visited Egypt in the past year.

Thousands of tourists waited in slow-moving security lines at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport on Saturday as they tried to board charter flights home. Many complained about a lack of information from travel agents and airlines, but seemed to accept tight security measures.

Russia Egypt Russian Plane Crash People gather to lay flowers in memory of the plane crash victims at Dvortsovaya Square in St Petersburg. Associated Press Associated Press

Near miss

Meanwhile, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that investigators had determined that a missile that came within 1,000 feet (300 metres) of a plane carrying British tourists to Sharm el-Sheikh on 23 August was “probably a flare”. The Thomson jet was carrying 189 passengers.

Tui Group, which owns Thomson, said an investigation by Britain’s Department for Transport had concluded that the incident was not a “targeted attack” and likely connected to routine Egyptian military exercises in the area at the time. Thomson said there was “no cause for concern” for further flights.

The spokesman for Egypt’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Abu Zeid, tweeted yesterday that the incident involved a “ground-to-ground fire exercise” at an Egyptian military base a few kilometers from the Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

The spokesman said airliners had previously been informed of the military exercise and that the Egyptian and British governments were “fully aware that plane was in no danger”.

Read: British plane entering Sharm el-Sheikh ‘missed rocket by 300m’ just weeks ago

Read: At least 179 Irish people in Egypt as world leaders say bomb may have brought down plane

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23 Comments
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    Mute Joshua Walsh
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    Nov 8th 2015, 9:00 AM

    At this point is it not time that Russia, Europe and the US got to work eradicating ISIS? A bit idealistic I know, but they are the greatest threat to our way of life.

    112
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    Mute Isaac Smyth
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    Nov 8th 2015, 11:08 AM

    We would all be working together if the American’s were not hell bent on undermining the EU and Russia.

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    Mute Michael O' Riordan
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    Nov 8th 2015, 7:44 AM

    ‘Probably a flare’!!!
    Yeah right!

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    Mute Mark Gerard Lochlain
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    Nov 8th 2015, 8:40 AM

    Exactly!! And “batteries in the luggage of a passenger” FFS wake up!!

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    Mute Euro is Dead
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    Nov 8th 2015, 8:52 AM

    I think the time has come to give Putin a free hand here. Someone has to draw a line under this kind of crime. When the Libyans blew up a passenger jet over Lockerbie the UK let the perpetrator go free under some dodgy deal with Gadaffi.

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    Mute Niallers
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    Nov 8th 2015, 9:09 AM

    Lithium batteries caused a fire in a transport aeroplane before which caused a crash but that was like a pallet load of lithium batteries. A passenger is unlikely to have that many batteries.

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    Mute Paul
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    Nov 8th 2015, 11:52 AM

    Not possible it could of been a rocket, given the speed of it and a human reaction to turn a plane. It’s just does not add up.

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Nov 8th 2015, 11:57 AM

    The real Lockerbie perpetrator(s) haven’t been found yet – the guy who was locked up and subsequently released was a sacrificial lamb.

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    Mute stephen
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    Nov 8th 2015, 8:02 AM

    The sh!t has well and truly hit the fan. Putin and his cronies are going to run a muck.

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    Mute Bob Beaman
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    Nov 8th 2015, 8:20 AM

    Them ISIS boys better get used to the taste of heavy Russian artillary for breakfast. They just signed their own death warrant. Egypt can kiss its tourism ass goodbye. I wont shed a tear over that. Don’t like the nation.

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    Mute James O Donoghue
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    Nov 8th 2015, 8:31 AM

    The west has far more hardware in the area and Isis are still there. Russia won’t go in on ground on its own. Last time they sent troops in that part of the world many were skinned alive

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    Mute Isaac Smyth
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    Nov 8th 2015, 11:07 AM

    They are already on the ground James !?

    17
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    Mute Shannon Cassidy
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    Nov 8th 2015, 7:55 AM

    If the plane belonged to any other country the would would be saying straight away that it was blown up by terrorists

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    Mute Isaac Smyth
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    Nov 8th 2015, 11:06 AM

    Or perhaps they would conduct a forensic investigation first? As the Russians are doing.

    Why is it people were willing to wait a year for most plane disaster reports but here they feel that they can just guess the outcome after only days?

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Nov 8th 2015, 11:59 AM

    Errr, the Russians (and the Egyptians) said in the immediate aftermath that a terror attack wasn’t credible. They have certainly softened their position now though.

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    Mute Alan Scott
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    Nov 8th 2015, 10:34 AM

    Cannot understand why these Countries cannot agree to wipe ISIS off the face of this Earth

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    Mute Carol C.
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    Nov 8th 2015, 10:19 AM

    Eh….what size would that lithium batter be? Becasue a standard one certainly couldn’t break a plane up!

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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Nov 8th 2015, 10:27 AM

    Depends where it was located on the aircraft, if on proximity to the skin of the fuselage event a small explosion could rupture it causing explosive decompression and the loss of the aircraft

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Nov 8th 2015, 12:00 PM

    Lithium batteries can certainly catch fire, but any ‘explosion’ is very weak.

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    Mute Patrick J O'CONNOR
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    Nov 8th 2015, 4:42 PM

    British Muslims heard cheering by Brit. Intelligence on mobiles seconds after the plane downed.”The enemy within and/or next door! How much longer do we bury our heads in the sand?

    —”They were overheard celebrating moments after the explosion that blew the plane apart, killing all 224 on board.

    The jihadis were heard talking in Birmingham and London accents by spies at GCHQ in Cheltenham.

    Trained in Syria and with an electronics background, it is believed they may have had a hand in building the bomb.—”
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/617832/British-extremists-jet-bomb-accents-Sharm-El-Sheikh-Egypt

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    Mute Anthony Whelan
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    Nov 8th 2015, 4:26 PM

    Batteries? And what about all the batteries in mobile phones and laptops any of them explode on planes recently no, this is a government cover up to save tourism. Unleash America an Russia into Syria to clean out this shit. Nothing left in the country as it is all flattened.

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Nov 8th 2015, 1:17 PM

    A UPS 747F crashed due to a fire caused by the self ignition of lithium batteries there were pallet loads of them,The crew were able to communicate with ATC and get vectors for the airport and try and land. The Metrojet didn’t squak 7700 so it possibly broke apart either due to some structural fault or a bomb. The CVR & FDR and testing of the aircraft frame for explosive traces should tell us what actually happened.

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