In a massive outpouring of grief, thousands of people flocked to St. Petersburg's airport, laying flowers, soft toys and paper planes next to the pictures of the victims of the crash of the passenger jet in Egypt that killed all 224 on board in Russia's deadliest air crash to date.

Airbus said the A321 was built in 1997 and had been operated by Metrojet since 2012. It had flown 56,000 hours in nearly 21,000 flights and was powered by engines from International Aero Engines consortium.

The aircraft disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes after take off at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9,400 metres), Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry said.

According to FlightRadar24, an authoritative Sweden-based flight tracking service, the aircraft was descending rapidly when the signal to air traffic control was lost.

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