British officials are at odds with Russia and Egypt over the cause of a Russian jetliner that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula last Saturday. British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that the crash was likely cause by a bomb. Russia and Egypt’s aviation ministries have meanwhile rejected the notion and called to wait on more information before drawing conclusions.
“The investigation team does not have any evidence or data confirming this hypothesis,” Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said, according to a statement.
The crash of Metrojet A321 killed all 224 people on board. The plane had been on the way to St. Petersburg when it came apart over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Thousands of British tourists are now waiting on their government to bring them home as Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi is in the UK today, where he met with Cameron.
Sisi said Egypt and Britain are “working intensively together in a spirit of close co-operation … to address this and get back to normal as soon as possible.”
Security at the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh’s airport is in question after the incident. Unsubstantiated claims made by ISIS, also sometimes called ISIL or the Islamic State, indicated that they planted a bomb on the plane.
“This airport has lax security. It is known for that,” an American intelligence official told CNN.
Egypt’s government is currently fighting an ISIS insurgency in the Sinai region. Sisi denied that ISIS was behind the attack on Tuesday and Russia and Egypt have called for more time to investigate.
Alexander Neradko, Russia’s aviation agency chief, said an investigation would take “at least several months.”