Hours after some bodies arrived in St. Petersburg, Russian forensic experts began trying to identify the remains of the passengers who were killed when an Airbus A321-200 crashed in Egypt on Saturday.
Reporting from Moscow, NPR's Corey Flintoff reports that Russian officials have yet to determine the cause of the crash. He filed this report for our Newscast unit:
"Investigators say all 224 people aboard the Metrojet airliner were killed when the plane crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. "Officials asked family members to give DNA samples to help identify the dead.Russian officials at the crash scene say that the wreckage is spread over a wide area, indicating that the plane broke up in the air. "Investigators are declining to speculate on the cause of the disaster. "An Egyptian rebel group that's affiliated with the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the crash. Russian and Egyptian officials dismissed that claim, saying the group didn't have the weaponry to hit a plane at a high altitude."
Meanwhile, the deputy director of Metrojet, Viktor Yung, told reporters that he did not believe the crash was caused by technical or human error.
According to the Russian-funded RT, Yung said the airline crew was incapacitated by the time the plane began plummeting.
Aleksandr Smirnov, who supervises the fleet of planes told RT: "The only possible explanation is a mechanical force acting on the aircraft. There is no combination of system failures that could have broken the plane apart in the air."
RT adds: "The company gave assurances that the crashed Airbus had passed all necessary tests, including a check for metal fatigue in 2014, an inspection that must be done every six years."
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