Debris Found After Russian Plane Crashes in Egypt

A Russian plane which went missing in Egypt on Saturday with 212 passengers aboard has crashed in the Sinai, an Egyptian aviation official said.

"Research and rescue forces found the debris of the Airbus 321," the chief of Egypt's state Aviation Accidents Commission, Ayman al-Moqdam, said.

"A delegation from the Civil Aviation Ministry will immediately head to the area to start an investigation into the cause of the accident," he added.

Aviation authorities lost contact with the plane shortly after it took off from the Egyptian Red Sea town of Sharm al-Sheikh in southern Sinai, Egyptian aviation authority sources said.

"Minutes after its take-off, we lost control with the plane, bound for an airport in federal Russia," an aviation official said.

He added that all the passengers aboard were Russian holidaymakers.

Earlier reports quoting Moqdam stated that contact had been restored with the missing plane as it flew through Turkish airspace.

Source: DPA