Plane Went Down In A Mountainous Area Early Saturday

A Russian A321 with 224 passengers and crew on board has gone down in a mountainous region of Egypt's Sinai peninsula. The accident occurred early Saturday local time. No survivors have been reported.

The airliner was operated by the Russian carrier Kogalymavia in Metrojet livery. Reuters reports that first responders describe an airliner that had "split in two." The source, who requested anonymity, said that a small section near the tail had burned, and the larger portion of the airplane "crashed into a rock. The Egyptian security officer said there were "a lot of bodies on the ground."

Security sources said that there was no indication that the airliner had been shot down or blown up, though the area is one where militants close to ISIS are known to operate.

Authorities quickly recovered one of the airplane's two flight recorders, though it was not reported which device had been found. The wreckage is reportedly strewn over a wide area.

The A321 had departed from the Sharm el-Sheikh resort on the Red Sea at 0551 local time en route to St. Petersburg, Russia. In a statement, Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry said that it had reached an altitude of 31,000 feet when it disappeared from radar 23 minutes after departure. Sweden-based flight tracking service FlightRadar24 reports that the plane had been tracked descending at about 6,000 feet per minute before its signal was lost.

Russia's RIA news agency cited sources at Sharm el-Sheikh who said that the pilot had reported a "technical problem" and requested a diversion to Cairo airport before communication with the aircraft was lost.

(Image captured from unrelated YouTube video. Not accident airplane)

FMI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Civil_Aviation_(Egypt)