Russian plane crashes in Egypt

SEARCH and rescue officers have described a “tragic scene” after finding more than 100 bodies, including children, at the crash site of a Russian plane in Egypt.

Officials have reached the wreckage of the civilian plane which crashed in central Sinai carrying 224 passengers and crew members. A state of emergency has been declared in the area and more than 45 ambulance crews have been dispatched.

Officials at the scene said the plane was “completely destroyed” and it was unlikely any of those on board had survived.

A rescue worker told Reuters more than 100 bodies have been found, many still strapped in their seats inside the plane “split into two”. At least five children have reportedly been found dead. Seventeen children were reportedly on board the flight.

Earlier, there was a slim sign of hope as an officer told news agency Reuters rescue workers had heard “pained voices” from people inside a section of the aircraft workers were yet to gain access to. Several Egyptian military and security officials now say there are no survivors.

A message posted to the Russian embassy’s Facebook page, from Cairo, confirmed the worst: “Unfortunately, all passengers of Kogalymavia flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - Saint Petersburg have died. We issue condolences to family and friends.”

The Airbus A321 aircraft was operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia and was carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members.

The flight departed the Egyptian Red Sea town of Sharm al-Sheikh just before 6am local time.

The resort town is popular with Russian tourists. All of those on board the aircraft which was en route to St Petersburg are believed to be Russian.

The Russian emergency ministry published a list of names of the passengers, ranging in age from a 10-month-old girl to a 77-year-old woman.

The plane crashed in the desert region after losing contact with air traffic control shortly after take off. A senior aviation official said he plane was flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet when communication was lost.

A “Russian civilian plane ... crashed in the central Sinai,” the office of Egyptian prime minister Sharif Ismail said in a statement.

A ministry statement said Egyptian military search and rescue teams found the wreckage of the passenger jet in the Hassana area south of the city of el-Arish, an area in northern Sinai where Egyptian security forces are fighting a burgeoning Islamic militant insurgency led by a local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group.

Militants in northern Sinai have not to date shot down commercial airliners or fighter-jets.

At Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport, anxious family members awaited news of their loved ones.

“I am meeting my parents,” said 25-year-old Ella Smirnova, a young woman seemingly in shock.

“I spoke to them last on the phone when they were already on the plane, and then I heard the news.

“I will keep hoping until the end that they are alive, but perhaps I will never see them again.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the emergency ministry to dispatch rescue teams to Egypt.

“The head of state has given orders to send emergency ministry (teams) to Egypt immediately to work at the plane crash site,” a Kremlin statement said.

Putin also ordered the government to launch a special commission “due to the catastrophe of Kogalymavia company plane in Egypt”. An emergency ministry meeting shown on Russian television announced that teams of rescue workers along with the emergency minister, Vladimir Puchkov, will fly to Egypt on Saturday afternoon.

Russia’s transport minister, Maksim Sokolov, and the head of the air transport agency, Alexander Neradko, are also leaving for the site, the ministry’s representative said.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal inquiry into any possible violation of air safety rules, a standard procedure when air crashes involving Russian planes occur. It is also sending investigators to the scene.

The last major commercial aircraft crash in Egypt was in 2004, when a Flash Airlines Boeing 737 plunged into the Red Sea after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh.

The 148 people aboard that flight, most of whom were French, were killed.

Millions of tourists, many of them Russian, visit the resort town, one of Egypt’s major draws for tourists.

The resort, and others dotting the southern Sinai Red Sea coast, are heavily secured by the military and police as an Islamist militant insurgency rages in the north of the restive peninsula, which borders Israel and the Gaza strip.

Militants in the north who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The Australian Embassy in Cairo is making urgent inquiries with Egyptian authorities to determine whether any Australians were involved in the incident.

A DFAT spokesman said they have had no indication of any Australians affected so far.

U.S. officials have offered their condolences to Russia and to all the families involved in the crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters: “We don’t know any details about it, but obviously the initial reports represent tremendous tragedy, loss, and we extend our condolences to the families and all those concerned.”