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An
Air France company employee lays flowers and toys at an entrance of Pulkovo
airport outside St.Petersburg, Russia (AP)
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British experts have met
to assess whether the Russian airliner crash in Egypt should force any change
in UK security plans and travel advice amid speculation a bomb may have brought
the plane down. Prime
Minister David Cameron said people should not stop flying to the popular Red
Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh despite claims by airline Metrojet that its
aircraft was brought down by an "external impact".
Investigations
continue into what caused the Airbus A321-200 to crash into the Sinai desert on
Saturday, killing all 224 people on board.
British
military analyst Paul Beaver said he thought the crash was most likely caused
by a bomb on board. He said he was certain Islamic State - who initially
claimed responsibility for the crash - do not possess a missile system capable
of hitting the plane.
Press Association report continues:
He
said: "I'm pretty convinced that Isis (IS) doesn't have a 'double-digit'
SAM (surface-to-air missile) that is necessary to go up as far as 31,000 feet.
"That's
a very serious piece of equipment, and I don't think they have that
sophistication."
He
also said the Sinai desert is well-scrutinized by intelligence agencies, so a
missile would have been seen.
His
comments came after Alexander Smirnov, the deputy general director of Russian
airline Kogalymavia - also known as Metrojet - ruled out a technical fault with
the plane. There had been no distress call or contact with air traffic control
in the run-up to the crash, he said.
He
told a news conference: "There are no such things as engine failure or
other defects that could lead to an aircraft breaking apart in mid-air.
"Sometimes
a few system failures and additional factors could end in a crash.
"But
the damage would be during impact on the ground and not in mid-air. In theory,
it is possible that it could break apart after an overloading.
"But
there are safety systems that would prevent airplanes from going (in the air)
under huge pressure. And the only reasonable explanation was that it was some
external influence."
Mr
Cameron said security officials were "looking very carefully" at
whether there was any ongoing safety risk posed by the incident.
Around
900,000 Britons visit Egypt every year, and any change about security
information would not be based on "speculation" about the causes, he
told ITV.
Mr
Cameron, who spoke yesterday with Russian president Vladimir Putin about the
crash, added: "If anything changes, we don't sit around and chew our pens
and not act. If anything changes it will be announced very quickly.
"But
as I say we must do it on the basis of evidence and not on speculation."
Emergency
workers and aviation experts continue to comb debris spread over a wide area
for clues and the black box flight recorders are said to have been recovered in
good condition.
Downing
Street said the meeting of officials was aimed at assessing the available
information about the crash.
The
Prime Minister's official spokeswoman said: "This was basically a meeting
of officials from across Whitehall to discuss what we know about what has
happened in the Russian plane tragedy and whether there is anything we should
learn from it."
She
added: "That's the type of thing people would expect the Government to do
when they see a passenger jet come down."
Officials
always kept travel advice under review, she added, but the meeting was "more
about establishing what we know so far and thinking about it moving
forward".
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