Russian plane ‘broke up in mid-air’

Victor Sorochenko, the head of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee, said it was too early to conclude what caused the crash on Saturday killing all 224 people on board.

After inspecting the crash site on the Sinai peninsula, he told reporters debris was found across a 20sq km-wide area of Sinai.

The head of Russia’s Air Transport Agency, Aleksandr Neradko, said that “all signs attest to the fact that the aircraft disintegrated in the air at a high altitude”.