First 10 bodies of Egypt plane crash identified

The first 10 bodies of victims of Saturday's plane crash over Egypt were identified by their families Tuesday, Russian officials said.

Metrojet's Airbus A321-200 en route from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg crashed over the Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, killing all 224 on board. The overwhelming majority of the passengers were Russian holidaymakers flying home.

Alexei Smirnov of the Russian emergency situations ministry said that a total of 140 bodies and more than 100 body parts were delivered to St. Petersburg on two government planes on Monday and Tuesday and that a third plane is expected to bring more remains later on Tuesday.

A total of 196 bodies from the Russian airliner crash have been recovered and the search operation has ended, cabinet spokesperson Hossam Qawish announced Monday, Ahram Arabic website reported. A Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations airplane carrying body parts and belongings of the Airbus A-321 crash's victims departed from Cairo and arrived in St. Petersburg Tuesday, state news agency MENA reported.

Another Russian airplane arrived on Monday with the bodies of 140 victims.

Russian authorities have set up a crisis centre next to Pulkovo airport, where the planes are arriving, for family members to provide DNA samples for identification, AFP reported. The site is also being used as a memorial site to commemorate the victims.

Confusing reports and theories emerged on Monday as to what could have caused the crash.

Some aviation experts raised the possibility that a bomb on board the Airbus brought it down, while others cited an incident in 2001 when the aircraft grazed the runway with its tail while landing.

Metrojet firmly denied that the crash could have been caused by either equipment failure or crew error.

In Egypt, the U.S. Embassy has instructed its staff not to travel anywhere in the Sinai Peninsula pending the outcome of the investigation into the crash as a "precautionary measure."

Tuesday 3 November 2015

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/11/03/first-10-bodies-of-egypt-plane-crash-identified