Mystery, confusion surround Russian plane crash in Egypt

Are you accusing USA newday?

Whatever the cause it's unfortunate that over 200 lives had to be lost. People completely uninvolved with the hate and violence going on down below.

I'm neither an aviation expert nor a mechanic, but I find it incredulous that the airline would simply assert that 'everything was fine' with the airplane just two days after the worst crash in Russian aviation history. It makes no sense and doesn't pass the sniff test.

Bottom line - because this is Russia, we know that higher authorities will likely intervene to put a spin on things to suit themselves, regardless of truth, accuracy or the concerns of families and loved ones. Do they really think the outside world won't come to the same conclusions?

A tail strike that wasn't repaired properly is probably one of the few explanations I can think of that rules out an attack of some kind.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the recent mass shootings in Oregon, Tennessee and Texas as well, although the Mohammed cartoon case in Garland TX was reportedly "inspired" by the group. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. Trained investigators have no doubt examined the videos of exploding and crashed jets and found them as unrelated as Internet sleuths.

I'm not sure about the US incidents but it was a militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt, or at least alleging to speak on their behalf, that claimed responsibility for the downing of the Russian plane.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/sinai-plane-crash-who-are-islamic-states-sinai-province-group-claiming-responsibility-200-1526834

Just relax until they get the black box data.

Well, as long as we are in the conspiracy theory phase of the investigation, let me offer the idea that if I were the head of the Netherlands' top secret spy organization, I would be looking for some payback for a certain airliner that went down over the Ukraine, but with a certain whiff of plausible deniability mixed in with it just to give some spice to this dish of revenge served cold.

Think about it: all passengers were Russians except for a few Ukrainians, presumably with loyalties to Moscow these days. Zero collateral damage and no inconvenient snooping by Western investigators. The Egyptians can be paid off pretty handily.

No muss. No fuss. Don't mess with the Netherlands.

Will this ever be "solved" or end up like the Malaysia Airlines plane shot down over Russia.

5SpeedRacer5

if I were the head of the Netherlands' top secret spy organization, I would be looking for some payback for a certain airliner that went down over the Ukraine

Some lies die hard.

If you were the head of the Netherlands' top secret spy organization, I'd recommend you to read newspapers. Then may be you'd understand the difference between "shot down by a Russian-made (Soviet-made, to be exact) missile" and "Shot down by Russians".

Al Qaeda sources are saying that their operatives got a bomb on board before takeoff. If that is the case, the flight recorders will only show that suddenly all data stopped.

It's too early to say for certain at this point in time, but it could've been nearly anything. I remember when a single screw popped out just after take-off of an AA DC-10 at O'Hare in Chicago which resulted in an entire engine falling completely off from under the wing. About 150 lives were lost on that sad day.

Who knows now. But it's really suspicious when the tail falls off an airliner that had previously banged its tail on a runway during landing. Occam's razor.

But it's really suspicious when the tail falls off an airliner that had previously banged its tail on a runway during landing.

Don't agree. A loss of cabin pressure such as what occurred with Japan Airlines Flight 123 is plausible in that case, but massive hull loss is not - and at any rate, there would have been time for the crew to communicate with the ground.

I'd read somewhere that a satellite had picked up a sudden, single flash that might have come from an explosion inside the plane. A bomb seems the most likely explanation.

Burning Bush:

" Moscow will have no choice but to send in ground troops to quash the rebels once and for all. "

Moscow will send ground troops to the Sinai? Come on, that is so absurd on so many levels. No way.

That brings up the obvious question, why hasn't ISIS in Syria made it's own claim? Are the two groups in coordination?

Well I doubt very much IS in Irsq and Syria are being given a social media platform to begin with, at least by any responsible provider. Whether the servers have simply migrated and been organizationally decentralized is another question.

They're still trying to determine if the heat flash was in the air or on the ground.

If in the air, some of their possibilities:

1) a missile hit - counterclaim: Egypt says insurgents won't be able to obtain and deploy such sophisticated system in a heavily militarized area like the Sinai, and there would had been 2 heat flashes (once when the missile launches and another when it hits the plane)

2) a bomb explosion - counterclaim: according to Russia, much of the dead bodies they're recovering for the families aren't shredded and burnt, but bomb residue analysis is still pending

3) the engine explodes - counterclaim: plane should still be able to fly with 1 engine, assuming the wings were still OK

Lastly, the heat flash could also be when the plane hit the ground.

Still to be determined when the heat flash occurred.

Drone strike?

Will this ever be "solved" or end up like the Malaysia Airlines plane shot down over Russia.

Agree with Dadude . . . the key word- "solved." Seems like this"unsolved" incident will drag the russians in further. Heck, whether an accident or not, it's good revenge propaganda to sell.

Well, officially, the findings of the commission investigating the shootdown of the Malaysia Air/KLM plan near Ukraine were released on Oct. 13. The Dutch government has since, officially, expressed strong regret that the investigation was impeded by Russia. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to believe that the Dutch might have better information about the shootdown than the commission had.

You know, the Dutch are not going to come right out and say that they did this. In fact, they want to deny it. But just as Russia shrugged when the BUK blew up that plane of civilians, I can imagine the Dutch are doing a lot of shrugging now. Hey. What could they possibly have had to do with it?

So you know, if that conspiracy theory sounds outlandish and unbelievable to some people, then so much the better. To me, I see a tacit agreement among civilized nations that shooting down airliners is never going to be tolerated. Somebody stepped out of line and let some minions fire a BUK at some tourists at the Ukraine Russia frontier, and the sponsors of the minions got smacked. It was only a matter of time. A plane load of tourists for a plane load of tourists. Tit for tat.

Both were terrible tragedies to be sure. It does not mean that they were accidents.

burning: Nice theory SpeedRacer, but I'm sure the Dutch know that the Kremlin isn't responsible for the deaths of 100s of their countrymen.

And if the do say it was the Russians, that would mean the Dutch are involved in the coverup that killed hundreds of their people, right?

You're trying to confuse readers with the Dutch Aviation report which specifically says it is not intended to place blame on any party. So technically you are right, Russia was not blamed, nor was anyone else.

Let's not confuse this with the Dutch criminal investigation which is looking to assign blame. I'm guessing if the Dutch blame Russia that would be evidence that the Dutch are in on it?