Russia: "Extreme external force" likely cause of Sinai crash - Kogalymavia exec

Kogalymavia's Deputy CEO, Alexander Smirnov, gave a press conference in Moscow on Monday following the A321 passenger liner crash in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Saturday. Smirnov said that "if a part of the fuselage falls away", as some reports are pointing out, "that means that there was an extreme force impacting the plane" and added that "the black boxes will show" what exactly happened. He confirmed that "there was not a single attempt" by the crew "to get in touch with ground services and traffic controllers and report the situation." Smirnov went on by saying that the plane "was in an excellent technical condition" and recalled that he "flew several times as the captain" of the aircraft. One PR worker of the airline noted that the insurance company "is currently working" on the compensations, and that given that "all our passengers had insurance policies they will receive an insurance", although it will take some time to sort all this out, she added. Kogalymavia (also known as Metrojet) flight 7K9268 heading to Saint Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh, crashed in Sinai around 23 minutes after take-off on Saturday, killing everyone on board. The passenger plane broke up in the air and its wreckage was scattered over a vast area of the Sinai peninsula. There were a total of 224 people on board - 217 passengers, including 25 children, and seven crew members, with reports indicating that all but five passengers - four Ukrainians and one Belarusian - were Russian.