If it is confirmed that the EgyptAir flight, missing since Thursday, vanished from radar on the airspace border between Greece and Egypt, air travel between Russia and Egypt will not be resumed, a high-ranking source within the Russian government said, the Kommersant newspaper reported Friday.
The plane crash will affect the timing of the resumption of travel links between Russia and Egypt, Kommersant reported, citing a senior source. “All of this is directly related to the safety of our passengers,” the source added.
On May 19 an EgyptAir Airbus A320-232 flying from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. There were 66 passengers and crew on board Flight MS804. Before disappearing from Greek radar, the plane had entered Greek airspace and the pilot had spoken to air traffic controllers. Both Egypt and Greece have sent personnel to investigate the area and search for wreckage.
According to aviation experts, it is unlikely that technical failure was responsible for the crash, nor was weather a problem at the time of the plane's disappearance. Egyptian authorities say that the plane was more likely brought down by a terrorist act than a technical fault of the aircraft, international media reported.
Head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov said: “Apparently, this is a terrorist attack,” Kommersant reported.
On Oct. 31, 2015, an Airbus A321 was downed over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula while en route to St. Petersburg — all 224 people on board were killed. Two weeks after the crash, the FSB announced that a terror attack had caused the plane crash.
Russia banned all passenger flights to Egypt in November 2015.
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