Russia Grounds All Flights to Egypt While Investigating Possible Islamic State Plane Crash
Russian authorities announced Friday that they would be grounding all flights to Egypt until they figure out the cause of a recent Russian passenger airliner crash that killed 224 passengers as it traveled over the Sinai Peninsula late last week .
Russian intelligence chief Alexander Bortnikov reportedly ordered that all flights to Egypt be grounded "until we know the true causes of the incident."
The Russian Metrojet flight went down last Saturday while traveling over the Sinai Peninsula en route to a resort area in Egypt.
Shortly after the plane's downing, the Egypt-based arm of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.
While Russia has denied the terrorist group's involvement in the attack, authorities in Great Britain have suggested that it is highly likely the plane was downed by a terrorism bomb stored in its hold that was then detonated during the flight.
"ISIL-Sinai have claimed responsibility for bringing down the Russian aircraft, they did that straight away after the crash," UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement.
"We've looked at the whole information picture, including that claim, but of course lots of other bits of information as well, and concluded that there is a significant possibility," he added.
British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Thursday that Great Britain would also be suspending flights to the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, the destination of the flight that was downed.
"The decisions that I am taking are about putting the safety of British people first," Cameron said. "That is why we have suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh and that is why it is going to take some time before we can fly people out."
