Tonight, Egyptian officials said they had recovered black box, which has been sent away to be


ISIS has released a video purporting to show the final moments of the Russian jet that crashed in Egypt, killing all 224 people on board.

The terror group has claimed it downed the aircraft, but has not said how it might have done so. The horrific footage - which was posted online and cannot be verified by MailOnline - shows a large structure resembling a plane falling through the air, before being consumed by a mass of smoke.

Cairo and Moscow have denied any possible terrorism link in the incident, which was one of the deadliest Airbus crashes in the past decade.

However, it has emerged that the aircraft broke up mid-air scattering debris and bodies over a wide area. This morning, Egyptian authorities recovered the body of a three-year-old girl some five miles from the crash scene.

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'The burning plane': ISIS yesterday released a video purporting to show the moment the burning Airbus A321 plummeted through the sky before hitting the ground. The horrific footage - which was posted online and cannot be verified by MailOnline - shows a large structure resembling a plane falling through the air (left), before being consumed by a mass of smoke (right) and eventually splitting in two (right)

Horrific: This is one of the first images of the mangled wreckage of the Russian passenger jet that crashed yesterday, killing 224 people

Torn apart: The harrowing photos of the wreckage were released by the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail, who visited the site

Devastating: Passengers' belongings, pieces of metal and other bits of the aircraft lay strewn across the sand following the deadly crash

The aircraft was flying through the danger zone in the Sinai peninsula at 31,000 feet when lost radio contact and crashed

So far, only 163 bodies of the 224 people on board have been recovered. As a result, authorities are expanding the search perimeter to nine miles.

An Egyptian security official said: 'We found a three-year-old girl eight kilometres from the scene.' He said many of the bodies are missing limbs.

It comes as it has emerged that the burning Airbus A321 did not lodge an SOS call before it plummeted to he ground in the restive Sinai Peninsula.

Professor Michael Clarke, Director General of the Royal United Services Institute said early indications suggest that the jet may have been destroyed by a bomb on the aircraft.

He told BBC Radio Five Live: 'This aircraft was 200km north of its take-off zone, that means it was flying at around 31,000 feet. Terrorists, as far as we know, don’t have equipment to take down an aircraft at that height.

'They have shoulder-launched missiles, known as man-portable missiles. They can get aircraft when they are taking off or landing, when they are going low and slow. But anything above 8,000 or 9,000 feet is out of the range of the weapons that they’ve got.'

He said the area where the jet crashed is a known location for groups affiliated to Al Qaeda and ISIS, but it was highly unlikely that a ground-based weapon was responsible for the in-flight break up.

'Early reports said it split into two and that suggests a catastrophic failure, not a mechanical failure, but perhaps an explosion on board, so I would be much more inclined to think, if we have to guess at this stage, it is much more likely to have been a bomb on board than a missile fired from the ground.

‘And there’s no sign of a distress call, so the idea that the aircraft was undergoing an mechanical problem, or an engine problem, or a fire, or something like that, you would expect that there would be some sort of distress call beforehand.

‘So the fact that there was a catastrophic failure at 31,000 feet, with the aircraft falling in two pieces, suggests to me an explosion on board. So was this caused by some form of terrible accident, which is unlikely, or a bomb, which is much more likely, my mind is moving in that direction rather than anything that happened on the ground.'

Tragic: It comes as officials have recovered the Airbus A321's black box, which is now being examined by experts to determine the cause of the disaster. Above, an item of clothing lies at the crash site (left), while officials walk past debris from the downed plane (right)

The doomed Airbus A321, pictured earlier this month in Moscow was reported missing soon after it took off from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, officials claimed the pilot warned of a technical problem before the disaster and asked to land at the nearest available airport

ISIS tried to claim responsibility for the plane crash which claimed the lives of some 220 mostly Russian passengers and crew suggesting their action was in response to Russia's decision to bomb Islamic fighters in Syria in a bid to prop up Basher al-Assad's regime

Egyptian officials confirmed there have been no survivors as more than 120 bodies including the 25 children have been recovered

Egypt's civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said communications between the pilot and air traffic controllers were 'normal' ahead of the disaster.

'There was nothing abnormal... and the pilot didn't ask to change the plane's route,' he said, adding that the controllers recorded no distress calls.

His comments contradicted earlier claims that the pilot had reported technical difficulties and made clear his intention to land at the nearest airport.

Family and friends were yesterday pictured grieving for their loved ones - as harrowing images of the plane's mangled wreckage were released.

The photos were distributed by the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail, who visited the crash site following the devastating crash.

They show the destroyed interior of the Irish-owned aircraft, which split apart upon impact, killing 192 adults, 25 children and seven crew members.

Yesterday afternoon, officials said they had recovered the aircraft's black box, which is now being examined to determine the cause of the crash.

Last night, the prime minister's office said: 'The black box was recovered from the tail of the plane and has been sent to be analysed by experts.'

It added that more than 45 ambulances have been dispatched to the crash site, with rescuers having recovered 129 victims' bodies so far.

The jet, which was leased by a Russian airline and carrying package holiday passengers back to St Peterburg in northern Russia, plummeted to the ground less than 25 minutes after it took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. It crashed in the Hassana area, south of Arish, officials said.

Its passengers included a 10-month-old baby girl flying home with her parents, as well as two siblings aged two and three. Numerous other children aged under 11 also perished in the disaster, according to a manifest of passengers published by the Association of Tour Operators of Russia.

The victims' bodies were spread over a three-mile radius, according to reports.

Security forces discovered the plane wreckage in a remote mountainous area in a region containing many ISIS-affiliated terrorists.

Ismail told reporters that experts will 'start examining the information in the plane's black box, and based on this we will study the causes of the crash'.

He also expressed scepticism about ISIS's claim that it carried out the attack in response to Russian strikes in Syria.

The ISIS statement read: 'The soldiers of the caliphate succeeded in bringing down a Russian plane in Sinai.'

However, Islami claimed: 'Experts have affirmed that technically planes at this altitude cannot be shot down, and the black box will be the one that will reveal the reasons for the crash,' according to state news agency MENA.

Russian transport minister Maksim Sokolov also dismissed the ISIS claims. He said: 'This information cannot be considered accurate. We are in close contact with our Egyptian colleagues and aviation authorities in the country. At present, they have no information that would confirm such insinuations.'

Neither official mentioned the terror group's video purporting to show the falling plane.

While the use of a surface-to-air missile has been dismissed as a potential cause of the crash by officials, an on-board bomb could be a possibility.

Fatal disaster: Yesterday afternoon, German airline Lufthansa said they will no longer fly over the Sinai peninsula 'as long as the cause for [the] crash has not been clarified'. Air France later said the same. Above, debris from the crashed jet is pictured in the Sinai desert

Remote area: Security forces discovered the wreckage in a remote mountainous area in an area containing many ISIS-affiliated terrorists

Remains: This evening, the prime minister's office said: 'The black box was recovered from the tail of the plane and has been sent to be analysed by experts.' Above, Mr Ismail (far right, in a black suit) is seen looking at the remains of the crashed passenger jet in Hassana

Recorder: In this image released by the Prime Minister's office, Mr Ismail, third right, observes the plane's flight data recorder with officials

A sad situation: Egyptian officials receive the corpses of 34 passengers following the deadly crash. A cause is yet to be established

Egyptian authorities have removed the first bodies from the scene by a military Chinook helicopter to Kabrit airport in Suez, pictured

Grieving friends relatives arrived at St Petersburg airport yesterday morning as they awaited news about the disaster from airline officials

The first 15 bodies were airlifted to a morgue in Cairo according to Egyptian authorities following yesterday's crash

The 129 bodies that have been removed from the crash scene so far are being taken to Cairo, where postmortems will be performed to try and determine when the passengers died. The passengers included 213 Russians and four Ukrainians.

Yesterday, German airline Lufthansa said they will no longer fly over the Sinai peninsula 'as long as the cause for [the] crash has not been clarified'. A spokeswoman for the airline said that 'security is our highest priority' claiming that they would use detours to service airports in the region.

Air France has also confirmed that it will not be flying through the Sinai until the reasons behind the crash become clear.

AIRLINES TAKE ACTION IN THE WAKE OF THE SINAI CRASH German airline Lufthansa has said they will no longer fly over the Sinai peninsula 'as long as the cause for the crash has not been clarified'. A spokeswoman for the airline said 'security is our highest priority', adding that it would use detours to service airports in the region. Air France has also confirmed that it will not be flying through the restive area until the reasons behind the crash become clear. Meanwhile, British Airways has reportedly ordered its pilots to avoid low flying over Egypt in the wake of the deadly crash. Hundreds of flights, carrying British passengers to tourist hot spots such as Sharm el-Sheikh, will continue to fly over the region. But pilots have been secretly told to be more cautious about their altitude amid concerns of a terror attack,The Sun reports. The maximum height a surface-to-air missile could strike is thought to be 25,000 feet. Advertisement

A spokesperson told AFP the measure was taken 'as a precaution' while 'clarification' was sought over the cause of the incident.

And today, it was reported that British Airways has ordered its pilots to avoid low flying over Egypt in the wake of the crash.

Hundreds of flights, carrying British passengers to tourist hot spots such as Sharm el-Sheikh, will continue to fly over the region.

But pilots have been secretly told to be more cautious about their altitude amid concerns of a terror attack,The Sun reports.

The maximum height that a surface-to-air missile could strike is generally thought to be around 25,000 feet.

Most of the bodies recovered from the crash site have been burned. At the time, the aircraft would have been carrying a very heavy fuel load.

Ayman al-Mugadem of the Aviation Incidents Committee said the pilot warned air traffic controllers that aircraft had developed 'a technical problem' and he needed to land as soon as possible.

However, he then lost contact with controllers - and the plane vanished from radar screens, he said.

Al-Mugadem's comments were later contradicted by Kamal, who insisted communications were 'normal' before the crash.

According to radar data, the aircraft was descending at more than 6,000 feet per minute shortly before the impact.

A statement from an ISIS-linked group being broadcast on jihadist propaganda channels said: 'A Russian plane was dropped with the destruction of more than 220 Russian Crusaders, thankfully.'

However, the aircraft vanished from radar screens at 30,000 feet, more than double the effective range of a shoulder-carried ground-to-air weapon system.

The group known as A3'Maq News used the headline: 'fighters of the Islamic State down a Russian passenger plane in the sky over the Egyptian Sinai.'

It quoted a source as saying: 'This operation came in response to raids by Russian planes that have caused the deaths of hundreds of Muslims on Syrian territory, most of them women and children.'

Married: Mr and Mrs Gromov are pictured on their wedding day. They were among the 224 people were perished in yesterday's disaster

Heart-breaking: This 10-month-old baby (pictured, left, gazing out of an airport window ahead of the disaster) was among those killed - as were Aleksei Gromov and his wife Tatiana (both right). It is unclear whether Mrs Gromov was pregnant at the time of the deadly crash

Olga Sheina, pictured, was among those who died on board the doomed passenger jet which crashed yesterday

Haunting images: Viktoria Sevryukova (pictured, left, in an Instagram snap) also perished in the crash - as did Yury Shein and his young daughter Anastasia (pictured, right, boarding the Metrojet aircraft not long before it plummeted to the ground, killing everyone on board)

Yulia Buleyeva, pictured, was on her way home to St Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh when the jet developed a technical fault and crashed

Alena Moiseeva, pictured, aged five, was among 17 children who were killed with the jet crashed 60 miles south of el-Arish in Sinai

Teenager Maria Ivleva (left) also died in yesterday's disaster - as did Valeria Kantcerova (right)

Aleksandra Illarionova, pictured, also died on the aircraft, which was leased by Kogalymavia. Little Anton Bogdanov, right, was also killed

Valeria Bogdanova, left and Anastasia Bogdanova were both among the 220 victims as a major investigation is launched into the crash

Elena Moiseeva, 39, pictured, was among the victims. Russian and Egyptian authorities have agreed to jointly investigate the claim

Denis Glidyaev, 33, left, and Yulia Gerasina, 42, also lost their lives in the tragedy which has been claimed by an ISIS affiliate

The head of Egypt's civil aviation authority, Mahmud al-Zinati. said there were 'many dead' including 17 children. Officials said 214 of the passengers were Russians with three Ukrainians on board.

Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the state company that runs Egypt's civilian airports, said the plane had successfully undergone technical checks at Sharm el-Sheikh's airport before taking off.

He said experts were going there to view security camera footage of the Metrojet plane at the airport.

The aircraft was leased by Kogalymavia. Airline spokeswoman Oxana Golovina said the airline's pilot Valery Nemov had more than 12,000 hours of flying experience with 3,860 on the Airbus A321.

She said: 'Our aircraft was in full working order, our crew was experienced, our pilot had a great deal of flying experience, so we don't know (what caused the crash).' They stressed that human error was not at fault for the crash.

The aircraft was manufactured in 1997 and has been operated by Metrojet since 2012. Since leaving the Airbus factory it has flown some 56,000 flight hours completing almost 21,000 journeys.

Russia's state transport regulator Rostransnadzor found violations when it last conducted a routine flight safety inspection of Kogalymavia

But after the inspection, which took place in March 2014, the airline addressed the safety concerns.

Paying tribute: Two women light candles for victims of the plane crash outside the Russian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, yesterday evening

Mark of respect: Another woman leans down to place a candle among numerous bouquets of flowers on a wall outside the embassy

However, the RIA Novosti news agency said that the pilot's had expressed concerns about one of the aircraft's engines.

A source told the agency: 'This board (crew) had several times requested help from technical services due to an engine not starting up several times this week.

'Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered his own team of experts to the crash site to determine the cause of the disaster.

He has also declared a day of national mourning.

He has already sent five aircraft to Egypt to assist with the investigation.

The first of his team arrived in Cairo last night before heading to the crash scene today.

The Israeli Defence Forces confirmed they had intelligence assets in the region at the time of the crash. According to a statement: 'Since this morning the IDF assisted with aerial surveillance in the efforts to locate the Russian airplane that lost contact over the Sinai Peninsula.

'The IDF has offered continued assistance to both Russia and Egypt if required.'

The wreckage was found roughly 60 miles south of the North Sinai town of El-Arish, Egyptian officials said.

'Military planes have discovered the wreckage of the plane... in a mountainous area, and 45 ambulances have been directed to the site to evacuate dead and wounded,' a cabinet statement said.

One official at the scene said: 'I now see a tragic scene. A lot of dead on the ground and many died whilst strapped to their seats. The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part that crashed into a rock. We have extracted at least 100 bodies and the rest are still inside.'

The Egyptian Aviation Ministry said there were 63 men and 138 women on board. The victims range in age from ten-months old to 77.

Yulia Zaitseva said her friends, a newlywed couple named Elena Rodina and Alexqander Krotov, were on the flight. Both were 33.

Zaitseva said her friend 'really wanted to go to Egypt, though I told her "why the hell do you want to go to Egypt?" She added: 'We were friends for 20 years. She was a very good friend who was ready to give everything to other people. To lose such a friend is like having your hand cut off.'

She said Rodina's parents feel 'like their lives are over.'

The bodies of the first victims have arrived at the Zeinhom morgue in Cairo where they will undergo a postmortem examination

The official said the plane was flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet when communication was lost.

A senior official in Egypt air traffic control said that the pilot told him in their last communication that he was having trouble with the plane's radio system.

Russian aviation official Sergei Lzvolsky told Interfax news agency that the Kogalymavia Russian airline had departed Sharm el-Sheikh at 5:51 am local time.

He said the Airbus 321 did not make contact as expected with air traffic controllers in Cyprus.

Reports suggest the pilot was attempting an emergency landing at El-Arish international Airport.

The aircraft took off from Sharm el-Sheikh at 3.51GMT and was due to land in St Petersburg at 09:12GMT.

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched its own probe and is looking for possible 'violations of flight safety procedures'.

Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top investigative body, has opened an investigation into the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt's Sinai peninsula for possible violations of flight safety procedures.

Hundreds of grieving relatives arrived at the airport in St Petersburg where they were told there were no survivors following the crash

Russian crash experts are on their way to the scene to find answers for the families stunned by news of this morning's tragic crash

Russian president Vladimir Putin has announced that he is sending his own team of crash investigators to the scene of the disaster

As well as launching his own investigation, President Putin has announced that tomorrow will be a national day of morning in Russia

The aircraft took off from Sharm el-Sheik on the Red Sea and was on a flight to St Petersburg in Northern Russia when it crashed

Committee spokesman Sergei Markin made the announcement in a statement yesterday.

Egyptian authorities confirmed that 'casualties' were being evacuated to local hospitals.

The aircraft is believed to have broken into two sections after the jet crashed.

Early reports said that the bodies of five children have been recovered, still strapped to their seats.

According to Flight Radar 24, the jet was plunging at 5,760 feet per minute when it lost contact with air traffic controllers.

Reports suggest the pilot had warned air traffic controllers of a technical issue on board the aircraft.

Weather conditions were said to be poor at the time of the crash.

The jet was carrying 214 Russian passengers and three Ukrainians according to Egyptian authorities with a Russian crew of seven

The aircraft went missing some 23 minutes after take off in a remote region in northern Sinai, pictured, according to local authorities

According to flight data trackers, the aircraft plunged rapidly and lost speed before it lost radar contact

Egyptian prime minister Sharif Ismail, pictured, has formed an emergency committee to deal with the crash

Russian media claimed that pilots on the doomed jet had complained earlier this week about engine problems and it is reported they may have sought to divert the aircraft before it plunged to the earth.

The aircraft suffered a 'tail strike' in November 2001 as it attempted to land at Cairo International Airport from Beirut according to an aviation safety website.

The Egyptian prime minister Sharif Ismail said: 'Russian civilian plane... crashed in the central Sinai.'

His office confirmed that a cabinet level crisis committee has been established to deal with the crisis.

It is understood that the aircraft had just taken off on a four-hour flight to St Petersburg when it went missing shortly after take off.

The Airbus A321-231 is believed to have been manufactured in 1997 and is owned by a Dublin-based company.

AIRBUS STATEMENT ON THE CRASH 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 (pictured right) 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. Advertisement

The aircraft went down in an area where pilots are warned against flying at less than 24,000 feet because of the danger of 'dedicated anti-aircraft weapons'.

The probe into the crash is being headed by Ayman Al-Mokadem according to Ahram.org.

He said the pilot had requested a diversion before the incident for a 'technical failure'.

He claimed the pilot had asked for the nearest airport and may have been heading to Al-Arish in northern Sinai.

Reports from local journalists claim that local tribesmen near the remote crash site claimed that the aircraft was 'burning' as it fell from the sky.

US Secretary of State John Kerry offered his condolences during a visit the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.