A British plane avoids a missile attack above Sharm El Sheikh

A new revelation about a missile targeting a British passenger plane of Thomson Airways occurred above Sharm El Sheikh airport comes a few days after the Russian plane crashed at Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off and amid claims that this was a terrorist attack.

Daily Mail says that on August 23 a British plane from London heading to Egypt and carrying 189 passengers came ‘within 1,000ft’ of a rocket as it approached Sharm El Sheikh.

The Department for Transport confirmed the Thomson near-miss incident which took place just two months before the Russian plane crash.

A source said: ‘The first officer was in charge at the time but the pilot was in the cockpit and saw the rocket coming towards the plane.

‘He ordered that the flight turn to the left to avoid the rocket, which was about 1,000ft away.’

They said the five members of cabin crew only found out about the incident after landing.

The ‘shaken’ staff were offered the chance to stay the night in Egypt, but chose to head straight back to the UK on a flight that took off with no internal or external lights.
The missile that nearly struck the British plane was spotted by another of the carrier’s planes as it approached Sharm El Sheikh, according to the source.

‘The crew were told the rocket was from an Egyptian military exercise, but with what has happened there is a lot of fear,’ they added. ‘The incident left staff petrified.’

In July, the Foreign Office warned British tourists of a ‘high threat’ from terrorism and advised against travelling to northern Sinai.