A total of 214 passengers were Russian on board the passenger airliner that fell in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, while three passengers were Ukrainian, an Egyptian cabinet statement read.
An aviation team has extracted the black box to determine the reason for the crash of Airbus A-321, which was flying from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh to Russia's St Petersburg. The plane lost contact with the radar at 6.20 am CLT, less than half an hour after takeoff.
The plane was carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members.
Pilot Ayman Al-Mokadem, who is heading a committee to monitor the crash's aftermath, put the incident down to a "technical failure," refuting earlier speculation that it was shot down in the restive peninsula. He said that the pilot sensed the failure and reported to the aviation authorities that he wanted to land at the nearest airport, adding that he seemed to have crashed while attempting to land in Al-Arish's airport in North Sinai.
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