Metrojet A321 crashes killing all 224 aboard

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October 31, 2015

A possible link to a 2001 landing accident may be the cause of the loss of Metrojet Airbus A321, operating Flight 7K-9268 from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) to St. Petersburg (Russia) killing all 224 on board.

However, terrorist action may also be the cause with a group linked to ISIS claiming resposibility, although there has been no official verification of this.

The A321 appears to have broken up while climbing through 31,000ft over the Sinai Peninsula, whether this is the result of a decompression or terrorist activity is still to be determined.

In 2001 the same A321 (MSN 663) while operating for Middle East Airlines was involved in a severe tail strike on landing according to Aviation-Safety.net.  It is possible that the repair to the rear pressure bulkhead was not done correctly causing a weakness and it has failed ripping the tail away rendering the aircraft uncontrollable.

According to Aviation Herald, quoting officals, the A321 was located in mountainous terrain near Al-Arish however images of the crash site shows the area to be fairly flat. 

The plane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders were recovered from the crash site, which spreads out over 16 square kilometers (over 6 square miles) some 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of the Egyptian city of el-Arish.

As a precaution, Lufthansa, Air France, Qatar Airways and Emirates are altering flight paths to avoid the Sinai Peninsula area. 

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Egyptian officials initially said that the pilot reported technical difficulties and wanted to make an emergency landing before losing contact with air traffic control, however that was later denied.

The passengers were: 138 women, 62 men and 17 children BBC News reported, citing Egypt’s cabinet. 

Aviation tracking website Flight Radar 24 tweeted that the plane was descending at a rate of about 6000 feet a minute just before its signal was lost.

A statement carried by the MENA agency said the A321 took off at 5:51 a.m. local time and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes later.

AirlineRatings.com does not safety rate Metrojet.

The airline, known as Kogalym Avia, started operations in 1993. It operates five A321s and 2 corporate jets for charters only.

The Airbus A321 has an excellent safety record.

Initial observations; 

It is extremely unlikely that the aircraft was lost through an upset from Clear Air Turbulence (CAT).

Whatever happened, did so without warning which points to a catastrophic break-up possiby indicating damage from the loss of the tail if the rear pressure bulkhead failed.

Good weather was reported in the region making any cockpit instrumentation issue an extremely low probability.

Safety observers suggest that the aircraft pluging indicates a “rapidly developing technical problem” leading to a break up. And wreckage is scattered over a wide area suggesting a high altitude breakup.

A U.S. Federal Aviation Administration Notice to Airmen, or NOTAM, told pilots in the region to “exercise extreme caution [when flying below a certain altitude]…due to ongoing violence, unrest, security operations and the risk to safety from small-arms, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, anti-aircraft fire and shoulder-fired, man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS).” This sort of shootdown would seem unlikely in this event, however, because the A321 was flying just above 30,000 feet.

Still, the crash comes mere weeks after Russia upped the ante in the Syrian civil war, committing troops and warplanes to the defense of the Bashar al-Asad regime. The terrorist group ISIS was one of its targets.

In a statement Airbus said:

Airbus regrets to confirm that an A321-200 operated by Metrojet was involved in an accident shortly after 6:17 local time (04:17 GMT) over the Sinai Peninsula today. The aircraft was operating a scheduled service, Flight 7K-9268 from Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) to St. Petersburg (Russia).

The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to all those affected by this tragic accident of Flight 7K-9268.

The aircraft involved in the accident, registered under EI-ETJ was MSN (Manufacturer Serial Number) 663, was produced in 1997 and since 2012 operated by Metrojet. The aircraft had accumulated some 56000 flight hours in nearly 21000 flights. It was powered by IAE-V2500 engines. At this time no further factual information is available.

In line with ICAO annex 13, an Airbus go-team of technical advisors stands-by ready to provide full technical assistance to French Investigation Agency – BEA – and to the Authorities in charge of the investigation.

The A321-200 is the largest member of the Airbus twin-engine A320 Family seating up to 240 passengers. The first A321 entered service in January 1994. By the end of September 2015, some 6500 A320 Family aircraft were in service with over 300 operators. To date, the entire fleet has accumulated some 168 million flight hours in some 92.5 million flights.

Airbus will make further factual information available as soon as the details have been confirmed and cleared by the authorities for release.

Photo credit: Joe Pries