They Believe Something 'Outside The Airplane' Caused It To Go Down

Officials with Metrojet Airline say something incapacitated the crew of the A320 that went down Saturday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which resulted in the fatal injury of all 224 people on board.

The Associated Press reports that Viktor Yung, the director general of Metrojet, said that there was not "a single attempt to get in touch (with air traffic control) to report the situation" as the airliner descended. It was previously reported that the crew had said there was a technical malfunction on board the aircraft, and the pilot had requested a diversion to the nearest airport. Yung's comments directly contradict that report, and the Cairo official who had made that statement was not available for clarification.

On Monday, Yung told reporters that there was no "technical fault" that could cause the in-flight breakup of the A320-200 airplane. "It could only have been a mechanical impact on the plane" in flight. U.S and other officials continue to say that ISIS could not have shot the airliner down with the level of weapons technology they have available.

The airliners voice and data recorders have been recovered from the accident scene, and they were shown to Russian officials on site.

Alexander Smirnov, the deputy general director of Metrojet, said that the plane lost about 5000 feet in altitude and slowed by 186 miles per hour about a minute before descending to the desert.

(Image provided by Russian Emergency Situations Ministry)

FMI: http://en.mchs.ru