Russia awaits concrete evidence on plane crash

Beijing: Russia awaits concrete proof on the cause of the Metrojet Airbus crash last weekend in Egypt while European investigators believe an explosion was the cause after analysing the two flight recorders.

President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered all Russian flights to Egypt be suspended amid rising speculation that terrorist attacks were possibly behind the Russian plane crash in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on October 31, Xinhua news agency reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decision did not mean Russia believes a terrorist attack was the cause of the plane crash.

"Still, no theory can dominate, as there are no clear indications in favour of this version," Peskov said, adding that only official investigation could determine which of the theories looked most plausible.

Experts from France's BEA accident investigation agency are in Egypt investigating the crash as the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 was made in France.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond had said earlier there existed "a significant possibility that the crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft."

Alexander Neradko, chief of Russia's Federal Aviation Agency Rosaviatsia, on Thursday said experts will examine whether there was any dangerous material on board the plane.

The plane, which was bound for Russia's second-largest city St. Petersburg, crashed early Saturday about 23 minutes after taking off from Egypt's resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all its 224 passengers and crew members, mostly Russians.

The Sinai-based group "Sinai State" that had pledged loyalty to the IS claimed responsibility for the crash soon after it happened, but Moscow dismissed the claim as incredible.

Information from the plane's flight data recorders has been successfully copied and passed to the inquiry commission to be decoded, processed and analysed, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said.