Russia to send fleet of planes to Egypt to bring home tourists
Thirty empty planes would be sent to Hurghada, and 14 would be sent to Sharm El-Sheikh, the two Red Sea resorts where most Russian holidaymakers are staying, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said in a statement.
Russia halted flights to Egypt on Friday amid growing fears that the Russian jet that crashed on October 31 over the Sinai peninsula with 224 people on board was bombed.
Officials said earlier Saturday that Russian tourists will still be able to finish their holidays in Egypt and return at their own pace.
“Tourists will be returning from Egypt to Russia when they planned to,” said Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who is in charge of a task force set up to oversee the return of tourists.
“Most people left for two weeks – our usual holiday tour lasts two weeks – therefore they will return in about two weeks,” he said in televised comments late Friday.
In a statement, the labour ministry warned companies against taking any disciplinary action against employees who are now in Egypt and may be unable to show up for work on time.
As part of the crisis response, the Federal Tourism Agency said its representatives would be dispatched to Cairo, Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada to help tourists.
Following Britain’s example, Russia said that holidaymakers would be returning home without their hold luggage, which will be brought back to the country separately.
The emergencies ministry Saturday was set to send two planes, one to Hurghada and another one to Sharm el-Sheikh, to pick up tourists’ luggage.
Cockpit recorder reveals noise heard just before crash
Russia halted flights to Egypt after initially dismissing growing evidence that the plane might have been bombed by jihadists in an apparent act of revenge for Moscow’s bombing campaign in Syria.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman insisted the decision to suspend flights did not mean that Moscow believed the crash was caused by a deliberate attack.
However, a number of Western officials and governments have said in recent days that the crash could have been caused by a bomb, possibly smuggled on board in hold luggage.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said it was "more than likely" that the crash was caused by a bomb, while Sinai Peninsula, an affiliate of the Islamic State group, has claimed responsibility for bringing down the plane.
However, Egypt has sought to downplay the possibility of a terrorist attack and rebuked those who have speculated on the cause of the crash while an investigation is still ongoing.
The head of an investigation committee into the crash said at a press conference Saturday that a cockpit recording from the plane registered a noise in the last second of the recording.
But the committee head, Ayman al-Muqaddam, said experts were still gathering information and it was too soon to announce conclusions from their work.
France 24’s correspondent in Cairo, Amira Ashraf, said the timing of Saturday’s press conference was ‘strange’, particularly as it revealed little in the way of new information.
“They [Egypt] were under pressure to issue a statement and not sharing anything is, I think, a sign of worry by the Egyptian authorities,” Ashraf said.
British tourists stranded
Britain was the first country to announce it was suspending flights to and from Sharm al-Sheikh, the airport from which the doomed Russian jet took off before crashing shortly after.
The move led to chaotic scenes at Sharm al-Sheikh airport as British tourists waited to board flights home.
Plans to return some of the around 20,000 British tourists in Sharm al-Sheikh on Friday were thrown into confusion when Egypt said only eight of the planned 29 flights to take the Britons home would be able to operate, citing capacity limits at Sharm al-Sheikh airport and British airliners’ refusal to take passenger luggage in the hold.
A British official at the Egyptian Red Sea resort told Reuters on Saturday that the country hopes to return all of its stranded tourists within 10 days.
The British government is increasing the number of flights and will return about 2,000 nationals on Saturday on nine planes, the official added.
The official said British passengers would check in their luggage as usual but it would be transported separately on a different plane. Holidaymakers should have their luggage back within five to seven days.
“We’ve got good cooperation now which will allow us to get people home as soon as possible,” John Casson, Britain’s ambassador to Egypt, told BBC television.
“We have measures in place now which allow us to say it’s safe to fly home ... We’ll do it in a way that’s convenient and as quick as possible,” he said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
