Egypt crash to spur demand for strict aviation security: Emirates

Emirates Airlines president says he has ordered a security review but was not suspending any flights

DUBAI: Emirates Airlines President Tim Clark said on Sunday he expected the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt would result in demands for stringent aviation security worldwide.

Speaking at the Dubai Airshow, Clark added that he had ordered a security review, but was not suspending any flights as a result of the disaster.



Islamic State militants fighting security forces in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula have said they brought down the Airbus AIR.PA A321, which crashed 23 minutes after taking off from the resort of Sharm al Sheikh a week ago, killing all 224 passengers.

Black box data from the plane indicate it was bombed, sources said, ahead of a first update Saturday from the Egyptian-led probe into the disaster.

Both the flight data and voice recorders failed 24 minutes after the plane took off from Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh resort en route to Saint Petersburg on October 31, when it plummeted from the sky into the Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 people on board.

Cairo and Moscow initially dismissed a claim Islamic State militants downed the plane, but mounting evidence that the Airbus A321 was attacked has prompted a growing list of governments to warn against travel to Sharm el Sheikh.

On Friday, President Vladimir Putin ordered all Russian flights to Egypt halted, in a fresh blow to the country’s already struggling tourism industry.



Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told news agencies the measure did not mean Moscow believed the crash – the worst aviation disaster in Russia’s history – was due to an attack, and the investigation continued.

The head of Russia’s emergencies ministry said Russian experts had taken samples from the crashed jet and were testing it for any traces of explosives.