Crash of Kolavia flight 7K9268

October 31, 2015

 * Russian passenger aircraft with 220 onboard crashes over Egypt - RT
 * Russian airliner crashes in Egypt's Sinai peninsula with 224 people feared dead - The TELEGRAPH
 * ''A commercial plane with 17 children on board travelling from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg comes down in northern Sinai, close to area where Egyptian army is…
 * Initial examination shows plane crashed due to technical fault - sources - REUTERS
 * ''About 150 bodies, including burnt corpses, were found in a 5 km radius from the crashed aircraft, the sources said. The plane fell vertically, which led to large parts of it burning, the sources added.
 * Egyptian TV shows first photos from 7K9268 crash site - UNIAN
 * Crashed Russian Airliner Pilot Did Not Seek Traffic Control Help - Sputnik
 * Russian plane crash in Egypt kills all people on board - AlJazeera
 * A Russian airliner carrying 224 passengers and crew crashes in Sinai, killing everyone on board - Business Insider
 * Crash: Metrojet A321 over Sinai on Oct 31st 2015, disappeared from radar in climb over Sinai - The Aviation Herald
 * Sinai plane crash: 'No SOS call' before disaster - BBC News

Raw data

 * Crash of Metrojet Flight 7K9268 - FlightRadar24
 * FlightRadar24: Looping playback of #7K9268. Last data recorded at 04:13:22 UTC
 * FlightRadar24: More data from flight #7K9268 shows very big changes in vertical speed last 20 seconds. (Also stalling -horizontal speed became too low).
 * BREAKING NEWS: airliner missing within Egyptian FIR - PPRuNe
 * Passenger manifest - Russian Emergencies Ministry (214 Russian, 3 Ukrainian)
 * It was initially reported that pilot reported some problems with radio transmission, asked to land at the nearest airport. Subsequently, Egypt denied that emergency landing was requested, saying that normal radio contact was maintained until plane disappeared from radars (TASS quoting Egypt civilian aviation minister Husam Khamal).
 * Early media reports claim that some engine problems were reported earlier in the week.

Photos

 * First photos, more photos
 * Short crash site video-RT
 * Russia Plane Crash Debris Found in Egypt's Sinai Desert
 * Egyptian TV uses photos from a 2014 crash in Algeria.
 * Satellite photo of crash scene
 * Κοιλάδα θανάτου το Σινά: Συγκλονιστικές εικόνες από τα συντρίμμια του Airbus που διαλύθηκε στον αέρα - HD photos from crash site (Note the Apache attack helicopter circling overhead.)

Debris field
Illustrated in BBC-article. (Tail section is apparently among debris which broke up first, according to media reports; not clearly shown on maps so far).

Observations

 * The burnt wing is upside down. (May be from 2014 in Algeria?)
 * The nose section is intact. Cockpit roof is crushed, cockpit came down upside down.
 * The tail section came down intact in upright position.
 * Flight data (above) suggests that pilot struggled to ascend (not clear exactly why), but the plane stalled and went down into a spin. That could eventually rip off the tail section. But an explosion on board is not excluded as well. So far, some contradictory and confusing information. An investigation will be conducted, and Airbus representatives went to the scene. Wreckage and black boxes are recovered. So we will know, in the end.
 * An investigation area is currently 16 square kilometers, suggesting that the plane broke up before hitting the ground.
 * Flight 7K9268 Broke Into Pieces Midair, Too Early to Determine Cause - Sputnik, November 1, 2015
 * Debris Shows Kogalymavia A321 Disintegrated at High Altitude - Sputnik, November 1, 2015

Past tail strike
This official incident description is said to involve the same plane. Indeed, past registration record confirms that this is the same plane.

Heat flash
"Satellite detected heat flash at time Russian jetliner went down", CBS, 2.11.2015. "CBS News' national security correspondent David Martin reports a U.S. infrared satellite detected a heat flash over the Sinai at the time the Russian plane went down. The data is still being analyzed in an effort to determine what caused the flash. One possibility is a bomb, but an explosion in a fuel tank or engine as the result of a mechanical failure is also possible."

Injuries
It is said that injuries of passengers in front and back are different, blunt trauma, broken bones and blood loss in front; explosion-type injuries and severe burns towards the tail, according to lifenews. Reliability of this report is unknown, no official release so far.
 * Medical Examiner: Injuries killed in the crash of A321 can speak of a strong explosion on board - RT Russian, November 3, 2015

Elements not related to aircraft structure

 * TASS, 3.11.2015 "Experts have found in the area of disaster elements not related to the aircraft structure," - a spokesman said. "They were sent for examination," - said one of the sources. Official confirmation of this information is not available to TASS."

Explosion
TASS quoting Reuters, al Masri al Yaum, Egiptian investigators: powerful explosion (caused by bomb or fuel explosion) in an engine, simultaneous failure of both engines, fire in parts of the body, disintegration of the plane in the air and quick fall.

During preliminary search, explosive traces were not found. Sand is searched to determine whether it was a bomb, according to Reuters.

CNN: "U.S. intelligence: Bomb likely brought down plane"


 * OFFICIAL: EVIDENCE SHOWS ISIS BOMB BROUGHT DOWN RUSSIAN PLANE - AP, November 3, 2015
 * ''British and U.S. officials said Wednesday they have information suggesting the Russian jetliner that crashed in the Egyptian desert may have been brought down by a bomb. Intercepted communications played a role in the tentative conclusion that the Islamic State group's Sinai affiliate planted an explosive device on the plane, said a U.S. official briefed on the matter. The official added that intelligence analysts don't believe the operation was ordered by Islamic State leaders in Raqqa, Syria. Rather, they believe that if it was a bomb, it was planned and executed by the Islamic State's affiliate in the Sinai, which operates autonomously.
 * ''Two U.S. officials told the AP on Tuesday that U.S. satellite imagery detected heat around the jet just before it went down. The infrared activity could mean many things, including a bomb blast or an engine on the plane exploding due to a malfunction. One of the officials who spoke condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the information publicly said a missile striking the jetliner was ruled out, because neither a missile launch nor an engine burn had been detected.

ISIS claims

 * Conflict News: BREAKING: Islamic State group in Egypt claims it downed Russian airliner.
 * ISIS by Releasing Video Says Shoot Down Russian Passenger Plane - al Alam (Shows fake video.)
 * Egypt admits bomb may have downed Russian airliner - Financial Review, Nov 2, 2015
 * ''A grainy mobile phone video circulated online purports to shows the moment the airliner exploded before hurtling down to earth, but its origins are unclear and it could not be verified as authentic. However, it appeared to chime with accounts from eyewitnesses who said the plane fell flaming from the sky.
 * ''Yves Trotignon, a former French intelligence agent, noted that ISIS's claim of responsibility was vague in detail. "The statement does not say they shot it down, but that they destroyed it," he told Le Parisien. "You could imagine explosives on board, or sabotage."

Video
Two different versions of the video exist, each seems to show a different crop of the same original.
 * 1) Full width video with Islamic State media office logo in the right corner
 * 2) Cropped upright version with only the central part of the video shown. Starts with a banner trailer of the Islamic State Province of Sinai.

ISIS Media

 * Republished on Facebook by pro-Syria page

ISIS mandate in the Sinai

 * لحظة سقوط الطائرة الروسية في مصر (The moment of the fall of the Russian plane in Egypt) - 2.9 MB
 * This seems to be one of the earliest versions of the video. Uploaded 12:57:34 (UTC) on October 31, 2015
 * الطائرة الروسية ولاية سيناء فيديو اسقاط الطائرة (Russian plane mandate of the Sinai video shoot down plane) - 4.2 MB
 * Bad quality repost: wadi Press - 2.5 MB
 * The Wadi Press YouTube account has been deleted, copy saved here.

Speculation

 * Russian airliner with 224 people aboard believed shot down by missile over central Sinai - DEBKA, October 31, 2015