Egyptian air crash | Russia: Plane brought down by homemade explosive device

In this Sunday, Nov. 1 file photo, Egyptian Military cars approach the wreckage of a passenger jet bound for St. Petersburg in Russia that crashed in Hassana, Egypt

A homemade explosive device brought down a Russian passenger plane over Egypt last month, the head of Russia’s FSB security service said yesterday, telling Russian President Vladimir Putin it’s now clear the bombing that killed 224 people was a “terrorist” act.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for downing the Russian plane in written statements, as well as video and audio messages posted on the Internet following the crash.
“According to our experts, a homemade explosive device equivalent to 1 kilogram of TNT went off onboard, which caused the plane to break up in the air, which explains why the fuselage was scattered over such a large territory. I can certainly say that this was a terrorist act,” FSB head Alexander Bortnikov said.
He said tests showed the explosives had been produced outside of Russia, but gave no further details.
All of the people on board, most of them Russian tourists, were killed when the Metrojet Airbus 321-200 crashed over the Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31, about 23 minutes after taking off from the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. The plane was headed to St. Petersburg, where most of the passengers were from.
In Cairo, there was no immediate comment on the news from the Egyptian government. State-owned television carried the newsbreak from Moscow, but had no official comment either.
Egypt had resisted British and U.S. assertions that an explosive device was the likely cause of the Russian plane’s crash. Later, government officials and the pro-government media shifted their focus away from the cause of the crash to speculating on what they called a Western conspiracy against Egypt and the crushing impact of the crash on the country’s vital tourism industry.
Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible for the attack.
“There’s no statute of limitations for this. We need to know all of their names,” Putin said. “We’re going to look for them everywhere wherever they are hiding. We will find them in any place on Earth and punish them.”
The Islamic State group said the attack was retaliation for Russia’s air campaign against IS and other groups in Syria, where Moscow wants to preserve the rule of President Bashar Assad.
Putin said yesterday that Russia’s air campaign in Syria “should not only be continued but should be intensified so that the criminals realize that retribution is inevitable.”
He instructed the Defense Ministry and General Staff to present their suggestions on how Russia’s operation in Syria could be modified.
“In this work, including the search to find and punish the criminals, we are relying on all of our friends,” Putin said. “We will act in accordance with the U.N. Charter’s Article 51, which gives each country the right to self-defense. Everyone who tries to aid the criminals should understand that they will be responsible for giving them shelter.” Lynn Berry, Moscow, AP

Russia offers USD50m reward for downed aircraft info

Russia’s FSB security service has offered a USD50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for downing the passenger plane over Egypt. FSB director Alexander Bortnikov announced yesterday that a homemade explosive device had blown apart the aircraft and that it was now clear that it was a “terrorist” act. The FSB later appealed to “Russian and international communities for cooperation in identifying the terrorists” and offered “50 million U.S. dollars” reward.