Egyptian authorities said a bomb
is the most plausible reason for last weekend's deadly Russian jet
crash after taking off from Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh Airport, as Russia
decided to halt all flights to Egypt.
A government
official in Sharm el Sheikh told ABC News Egyptian authorities can no
longer dismiss the possibility that a bomb was placed on the plane and,
in their mind, it is the most "plausible" scenario, adding that a
technical problem is now at the bottom of their list of possible
scenarios.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin today agreed to suspend all Russian flights to Egypt, a Putin spokesman confirmed, according to Interfax.
The
Russian news agency also quoted a Russian official’s suggestion that
all Russian flights to Egypt, the plane's origin, should be stopped
until the cause of the plane crash is determined.
“While
we are still have not determined the true causes of what happened, I
think it would be advisable to halt all flights by Russian aviation to
Egypt. That is, above all, tourist flights,” Aleksandr Bortnikov,
director of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation,
said, according to Interfax.
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British
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said late Wednesday that while the
investigation is ongoing, there was a "significant possibility" the
crash was caused by a bomb, and Britain was suspending flights to and
from the Sinai resort city indefinitely.
Asked
today whether Obama was considering suspending U.S. flights in the area
like Russia and the U.K., White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest
said, “at this point, no.”
Earnest said the safety precautions announced today by the Department of Homeland Security are what "we believe are necessary."
Earnest
added, “while we can’t rule anything in or out, we have to consider the
possibility that-- of potential terrorist involvement here.”
The cause of Saturday's crash in the Egyptian desert remains undetermined and the black boxes are still being analyzed.
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