(CNN)ISIS' affiliate in Egypt says it brought down Metrojet Flight 9268. And U.S. officials are more confident that terrorists bombed the Russian plane.
Yet key questions remain: If terrorists did plant a bomb, how did they do it? And what could prevent that from happening again?
Here's the latest on what we know about the disaster that killed 224 people:
The bomb theory
Can detonated bombs be found? 02:39
Several senior U.S. intelligence, military and national security officials have told CNN about the growing confidence that the plane was bombed by terrorists.
One official said it was "99.9% certain." Another said it was "likely."
The plane was headed from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 31. But not long after takeoff, it disintegrated midair and crashed in the Sinai Peninsula.
Egyptian officials, who are leading the main crash investigation, haven't expressed as much confidence in the bomb theory.
"All the scenarios" are still on the table, said Ayman al-Muqaddam, the head of the investigation.
"We don't know what happened exactly," he said.
The Egyptians aren't the only ones involved. Experts from Russia, France, Germany and Ireland -- countries that are connected in various ways to the Airbus A321-200 that crashed -- are also investigating.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to reporters Monday that the UK had provided Russia with data on the downing of the jet.
Meanwhile, talks between U.S., Russian and Egyptian officials about the potential scope of American assistance in the investigation are ongoing. U.S. law enforcement officials told CNN that the FBI is already offering limited support but has no plans at present to send a team to the region.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported Monday that Russian experts may receive the first forensic analysis data potentially revealing traces of explosive substances on the wreckage as early as Thursday. But more definitive conclusions could take longer, according to the report.
Sources: Israel provided intercepts
24 photos: Russian plane crashes in Egypt
At least some of the intelligence intercepts being used to assess what happened to the jetliner came from Israeli intelligence, according to a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence as well as a diplomatic source.
The communications were captured by Israeli intelligence focused on the Sinai and passed along to the United States and Britain, the sources said.
Israeli officials would not comment on the claims.
Muqaddam said Egypt had not been provided any information or evidence tied to reports suggesting that a bomb took down the flight, and he urged the sources of the reports to pass along related evidence to Egyptian investigators.
ISIS chatter analyzed
Bedouins willing to fight ISIS in Sinai 02:22
The belief that a bomb was most likely to blame centers, to a large extent, on British and U.S. intercepts of communications after the crash from the Islamic militant group ISIS' affiliate in Sinai to ISIS operatives in Syria, officials said.
The Sinai affiliate has publicly claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but so far hasn't explained how it was done. That's prompted questions about the claim among some observers, considering ISIS' tendency to often publicize its acts for propaganda value.
The ISIS messages monitored by British and American intelligence agencies are separate from the group's public claims, a U.S. official has said.
The two Western countries have been analyzing the specific language in the chatter to determine to what extent the operatives were talking about the type of bomb and detonator used, and whether that language was a true representation of what happened, one official told CNN.
Several officials said it's the specificity of the chatter that has contributed to the U.S. and British view that a bomb was most likely used.
Mysterious noise
Report: Black boxes indicate no accident 01:42
European investigators who analyzed the plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder say the crash was not an accident, CNN affiliate France 2 reported.
The investigators said the cockpit voice recorder indicates an explosion, and the flight data recorder shows the blast was not accidental, the affiliate said.
But Muqaddam, the head of the investigation, did not echo those details.
He confirmed a noise was heard in the final second of the cockpit recording as the aircraft was on autopilot and ascending. But he offered no description of the sound, saying a specialized analysis would be carried out to identify it.
The crash might have been caused by a lithium battery or a mechanical issue, Muqaddam said.
He also said that bad weather has hampered the investigation.
More victims identified
Russians remember the victims of Metrojet crash 02:30
The remains of more than 100 victims have been identified through DNA testing, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
The vast majority of the passengers were Russian. The others were of Ukrainian, Belarusian or unconfirmed citizenship.
Russian media said the disaster created many orphans, as many parents left their children with relatives as they went on vacation to Sharm el-Sheikh.
After reading about the Russian plane crash, it makes me sad to hear that terrorist bombed the Russian plane and killed 224 people. I think that the U.S military and the FBI should help Russia so that this doesn't happen again.
ReplyDeleteI think we should mourn the victims of the crash and find a way to stop Isis. This has been going on for too long and innocent people are dying because of the "politically correct" way of stopping them. The US and a lot of the countries in Europe are going on high alert because of the increased terrorist threat. We need to find a way to stop Isis and we shouldn't care about how much money it takes. Peoples lives are worth more than money. Even if we lose soldiers fighting Isis we need to send troops in and defeat them because if we don't more and more people are going to die. So far more than 170,000 people have died in Iraq alone. The US isn't getting aggressive enough, it is better to send large amounts of soldiers over and end the war fast instead of sending over small amounts of soldiers that are dying for no reason and getting us nowhere. The US cant think of the humane way of doing things, they just have to get it over with and not care what people think, Isis has already taken things too far but other countries haven't noticed.
ReplyDeleteIf the plane was bombed down wouldn't they be able to tell? They said that they had "the growing confidence that the plane was bombed by terrorists" (CNN). This day and age it should be so easy to figure out. Even if it was not a bomb but a maniacal malfunction, the black box that's on every plane should have recorded it. All they would need to do was recover the box.
ReplyDeleteI was per 1
DeleteI don't understand why they don't know how the plane went down. If the plane was bombed by ISIS wouldn't they be able to tell. "the growing confidence that the plane was bombed by terrorists" (CNN). After everything that happened if they still can't figure it out, the black box on the plane should have been able to tell what happened.
ReplyDeleteTruman Andrus-Period 6
It's kind of funny how they don't know how the plane was destroyed when clearly it was bombed by Isis. They plainly said that they have a very strong belief that Isis bombed the plane "Thats good enough for me". but wouldn't the plane itself have some kind of recording on it so they would know what actually happened to it in the first place.
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