Russian Plane Crashes Over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Black Box Found At Crash Site

Update: 7:03 a.m. EDT -- Bodies of at least 100 people travelling on the Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula have been found at the crash site, Russian news agency RIA reported.

According to reports, the Airbus A320 belonging to Russian operator Kogalymavia was carrying 217 passengers and 7 crew members, and was bound for St Petersburg in Russia from Sharm el-Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. A senior military source in South Sinai told NBC News that bodies recovered from the crash site will be sent to Cairo, Egypt.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an official investigation into Saturday's crash, according to the BBC, which also reported that officials have found the airliner's black box.

Update: 6:16 a.m. EDT -- At least five children were found dead at the site of the crash of an Russian airliner that went down Saturday, Al Arabiya tweeted, adding that other bodies were strapped to the seats and the plane had split into two. Egyptian officials said that voices of the passengers trapped inside the plane."We hope to find survivors especially after hearing pained voices of people inside," and Egyptian rescuer said, according to Al Arabiya’s tweet.

Update: 5:28 a.m. EDT -- The Russian airliner, which crashed Saturday over Egypt while on its way to the Russian city of St Petersburg, went down due to “technical failure,” Ayman Al-Mokadem, a pilot leading a committee to monitor the crash, said, according to Egypt's state-run Ahram Online. Al-Mokadem reportedly said the flight’s pilot feared a technical failure and sent an alert calling for landing at the nearest airport.

An aviation team was heading to the crash site to recover black boxes to examine the cause of the crash. The Kogalymavia plane was “completely destroyed with all on board likely to have died,” a security officer from the search and rescue team sent out to the crash site in Sinai said, according to the Guardian.

Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya's spokesman Sergey Izvolsky said: “According to preliminary reports, the Airbus A320 belonging to Kogalymavia, en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg has taken off at 6.51 a.m. Moscow time [11:51 p.m. EDT]. At 7.14 a.m. [12:14 a.m. EDT] it failed to contact Larnaca [in Cyprus] and disappeared from radars. The plane carried 212 passengers and seven crew members.”

Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail and other ministers were travelling to the crash site, Reuters reported, quoting Egypt’s tourism ministry. Meanwhile, Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations was preparing to send three of its planes to Egypt to help in the operation, RT.com reported. According to BBC, 45 ambulances were sent to mountainous area of Egypt's Sinai, where the plane went down, Egyptian officials said.

Update: 4:44 a.m. EDT -- The wreckage of the Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt was located near Arish, the capital of Sinai Peninsula, according to Sky News Arabia. All 224 passengers, including 17 children, were feared dead in the fatal crash, Al Arabiya reported.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail confirmed the wreckage was found in Sinai, Agence France-Presse tweeted. Russian news agency RIA reported that the plane went down due to technical failure.

Update: 4:10 a.m. EDT -- A Russian airliner operated by Kogalymavia crashed Saturday, Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail confirmed, according to Agence France-Presse. The Airbus A321 bound for St Petersburg, Russia, lost contact with Egyptian air traffic control shortly after it took from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh city in Sinai Peninsula.

A "Russian civilian plane... crashed in the central Sinai," the office of the prime minister said in a statement, according to AFP. The prime minister has reportedly formed a crisis committee to deal with the crash.

Original story:

A Russian civil airliner that lost contact with Egyptian air traffic control was missing in Sinai Peninsula, according to reports. The plane bound for Russia took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh city in the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, after which it reportedly lost contact.

According to Reuters, the plane was reported safe and contacted Turkish air traffic control. However, Agence France-Presse tweeted quoting Egyptian prime minister that the plane had crashed in Sinai region.

According to initial reports, the most of the passengers are Russian nationals. Security sources in the Sinai Peninsula told Reuters that an aircraft was missing.