US and Britain say bomb probably downed airliner over Egypt; London suspends all flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh
US official describes bomb as a 'highly possible' scenario, as Islamic State continues to claim responsibility
The United States and Britain said a bomb may have brought down a Russian airliner which crashed in Egypt, as the Islamic State group insisted it caused the disaster.
“A bomb is a highly possible scenario,” a US official said on Wednesday, four days after the Russian Airbus crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.
“It would be something that ISIL would want to do,” he added, using an alternate name for the Islamic State (IS) group. If confirmed, it would be the first ever Islamic State bomb attack on a passenger plane.
WHAT HAPPENED? No survivors in 'tragic scene': A Russian Airliner crashes into Sinai killing all 224 people on board
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said in an earlier statement that “as more information has come to light, we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device.”
Britain suspended all flights to and from Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, from where the ill-fated plane took off on Saturday, and warned against all but essential air travel to the area.
The US and British claims came as Egyptian officials said investigators probing the black boxes had extracted the data from one for analysis, but the other had been damaged and required a lot of work.