Wreckage of Crashed Russian Airplane Found in Egypt

Wreckage of the Russian airplane, which crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, has reportedly been found near the al-Arish airport.

According to Egyptian officials, most of the 224 people on board are likely to have died, the BBC reports.

The aircraft operated by Kogalymavia aircraft was conducting a scheduled charter flight between the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and Saint Petersburg when it disappeared from the radars shortly after take-off.

According to live flight tracking service Flight Radar 24, the Airbus A-321 was descending with about 1500 metres per minute just before signal was lost and there were very big changes in vertical speed in the last 20 seconds.

Among the people on board were 217 passengers including 17 children and 7 crew members.

Most of the 217 passengers were Russian tourists.

Information on the crash was confirmed by the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail.

Ismail has formed a crisis committee to deal with the crash, with at least 40 ambulances reportedly sent to the site of the crash.

The airplane failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control in Larnaca 23 minutes after take-off.

The causes of the incident have not been established yet, but there were reports of bad weather conditions in the region.

Speculations that the airplane was downed by Islamic militants, who are active in the Sinai peninsula, are expected.

However it is unlikely that the airplane was struck from the ground as it was traveling at 9500 metres when it went missing from radar screens.