Fifty ambulances have been dispatched to the crash site of a Russian passenger plane that fell on Saturday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula en route to St Petersburg, cabinet spokesman Hossam Gaweish said in a statement.

Gaweish added that any injuries would be flown to Cairo's Almaza Hospital to be treated in Naser Institute and Dar El-Shefaa Hospital.

Any bodies from the crash will be transported to Zeinhom Morgue.

An injury or death toll has yet to be announced. However, Reuters quoted a security official at the scene who said that all the passengers are probably dead.

The aircraft was an Airbus A-321 jet, had 217 passengers and seven crew members on board, and was operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia.

Egyptian air traffic control lost contact with the civilian airliner shortly after it took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh at 5.58 am to head to Russia's St Petersburg, aviation sources said on Saturday. The plane lost contact with the radar at 6.20 am. 

The crash was probably caused by a "technical error" according to pilot Ayman Al-Mokadem, who is heading a committee to monitor the crash's aftermath.

Al-Mokadem added that the pilot seemed to crash while attempting to land in Al-Arish's airport in North Sinai.

An aviation team is on their way to extract the black boxes to determine the reason for the crash.