Israel assisted on Saturday with "aerial surveillance in the effort to locate the Russian airplane" that crashed in Egypt's Sinai, Israel Defence Force (IDF) Spokesman Peter Lerner said on his official Twitter account.

"The IDF has offered continued assistance to both #Russia and #Egypt if required. #7K9628," Lerner said in a tweet.

Egypt’s military has so not confirmed whether the IDF assisted locating the wreckage of the passenger aircraft.

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

An official injury or death toll has yet to be announced.

Reuters reported that at least five children were confirmed dead and the plane was found split into two. However, rescue teams are still trying to enter another section of the plane after hearing "pained voices of people inside" an officer at the scene told Reuters.

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 Cairo Local Time (CLT).

The crash was probably caused by a "technical error" according topilot 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 was sent to extract the black boxes to determine the reason for the crash.



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