Russian Commercial Plane Downed by ISIS near Egypt
A Russian passenger plane was hit and downed by a rocket launched allegedly by ISIS when the commercial Metrojet was over Egypt's airspace on Saturday. A total of 224 casualties were instantly declared by several global news agencies.
Russian Airbus A321 flight 7K9268 , carrying 217 passengers and seven crewmembers, en route from Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt to St. Petersburg disappeared from the radar center early Saturday. After a few minutes, a plane crash news broke worldwide citing that the jet was allegedly shot down by ISIS.
Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately released an official statement expressing his condolences to the families of the victims. Also, he reportedly sent a group of highly skilled air crash investigators to probe the disaster.
In the preliminary investigation, 129 bodies and two black boxes containing critical flight data were retrieved from the crash site. Air crash investigators are currently looking for some clues in the area that could link to the original cause of the accident. Emergency response groups from Egypt are continuously searching the missing passengers.
A 20-second video was immediately shared by liveleak. Here's the clip.
Recent update of the incident
Egyptian goverment ruled out the possibility that the Russian passnger plane was shot down by the members of ISIS. However, the Islamic State group claimed that they hit the commercial plane.
German carrier Lufthansa and French airline Air France officially announced that their passenger planes will stay away from Sinai to avoid possible close encounter to the revolutionary groups who have access to anti-aircraft weapons and mobile rockets.
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration initially warned U.S. airlines from using the Sinai route for their commercial flights as there's a high risk of encountering hazardous actions from extremists in the neighboring area.
What's your take on this horrifying incident? Do you believe that ISIS groups are behind this cruel operation to shoot down the Russian passenger plane?