Sharm El Sheikh. October

Russian guests’ family relations await additional news regarding the plane crash in Egypt. Photograph: Reuters

Over 200 individuals and team aboard a Russian airliner traveling through the well-known traveler resort Sharm el-Sheikh have actually died after it crashed when you look at the Sinai desert.

The journey, operated by Metrojet and bound for St Petersburg, destroyed contact with air-traffic control 23 mins after departure. Its wreckage ended up being discovered about 100km (60 kilometers) south for the north Sinai town of El-Arish, Egyptian officials said.

A north Sinai protection source said a technical fault ended up being the initial explanation the crash, incorporating that the airplane arrived in a “vertical fashion”.

Initial relief employees in the scene described the jet as “completely damaged” and an Egyptian security officer informed Reuters that many people had died strapped in to their seating.

“The jet split up into two, a small part regarding tail-end that burned and a bigger part that crashed into a stone. We have removed at the very least 100 bodies as well as the remainder remain in, ” he stated.

The Russian embassy in Cairo stated it had been told by Egyptian officials that the pilot was indeed attempting to make an emergency landing at El-Arish.

Conflicting reports previously surfaced, with recommendations that there were some survivors after sounds had been heard into the wreckage associated with the plane’s cabin. Egyptian search and relief officials stated later that all 224 on-board, including 17 children, died.

Airbus said the A321-200 that crashed was 18 yrs old, had made very nearly 21, 000 routes and accrued about 56, 000 trip hours. It had been operated because of the Russian flight since 2012.

Kogalymavia, which has Metrojet, stated there were “no grounds” the culprit the event on person error. Russian state media stated that the team had reported to officials earlier in the day recently towards condition for the plane, saying it should never be flown because technical issues.

“This aircraft appealed toward technical solution regarding the motor start failure several times over the past few days before this, ” a source informed the RIA agency.

Distraught family members gathered throughout Saturday at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport, where the journey was in fact due to land at 12.10pm regional time.

Viktoria Sevryukova, 24, ended up being one of several brands on a traveler record published by Russia’s Association of journey Operators. She had relaxing on beach during the woman visit to Sharm el-Sheikh.

Sevryukova’s friend, Yevgenia Beryozina, told the Guardian she thought “emptiness” and still cannot think the news headlines. “She had been my best friend – she had waited with this travel like I don’t know what, ” Beryozina stated. “And now she’s gone. Exactly like that, she’s gone.” Beryozina described Sevryukova as “positive, smart and sociable” which “everything had been starting to exercise” in her own life. “It’s simply not reasonable.”

Ella Smirnova, 25, stated she was because fulfill the woman parents who were agreeable the trip. “we spoke to them final on phone when they had been currently regarding the jet and we heard the news. I will keep wishing before the end they are live, but perhaps I am going to never see them once more, ” she stated.