Days after Russia expressed its shock over UK’s failure to share intelligence with them on a bomb on plane, Egypt criticized unnamed countries for not passing vital information to them on the crash.
“We are the party that is the most closely connected to the issue,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. “We expected that the information provided on a technical level would be provided to us on a technical level, instead of it being released to the media in this public manner.”
Captain Ayman Muqaddam, the head of the Egyptian investigation team, took a pointed swipe at US and British speculation on the possibility of a bomb, saying some of the media reports and analysis claimed to rely on official intelligence which favors a certain scenario for the cause of the accident.
The investigation team was not provided with any information or evidence in this regard, he said.
Muqaddam said a “noise” from an undetermined source was heard immediately before the black box of the Russian airliner suddenly went dark.
Spectral analysis is required to determine its nature.
The comments from the foreign minister and the captain came as Egypt launched an investigation into the staff and ground crew at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport, according to Egyptian airport and security officials.
The officials told Associated Press Saturday that authorities were questioning airport staff and ground crew who worked on the Russian flight and had placed some employees under surveillance.
People evacuated from airport after ‘bomb’ threat
About 150 people were evacuated from Ekaterinburg’s Koltsovo airport in the Russian Urals following a bomb alert, a local law enforcement source told RIA Novosti news agency.
The evacuation was prompted by an anonymous phone call to the airport. A message warning about a bomb later turned out to be a false alert, however.
“The airport has been examined, nothing suspicious has been found,” a police source told TASS.
During the alert, all the passengers inside the building were taken outside, and the passengers from arriving flights were kept on their planes.
The planes were also pulled away from the airport building, passengers stuck on the planes reported via Twitter messages.
Two ambulances were sent to the scene, although there was no information on casualties,
Ekaterinburg is the fourth largest city in Russia.