Airline blames 'external impact' for Egypt crash

Show Caption Hide Caption Metrojet: 'External impact' brought down Russian plane The Russian airliner is ruling out technical problems and human error in the crash that took 224 lives in Egypt.

A U.S. satellite detected a heat flash over Egypt's Sinai peninsula as a Russian airliner plummeted to the desert floor killing all 224 people aboard, according to news reports. The revelation came as conflicting reports Monday intensified the mystery over what happened to the doomed plane.

An official with Metrojet, the airliner that operated the aircraft, claimed Monday it went down as a result of an "external impact," and Russia's chief air crash investigator later chided the airline executive for speaking before any details about the crash were known.

Data from a U.S. infrared satellite is still being analyzed to determine whether the flash could have been caused by a bomb, an explosion on the ground or a mechanical failure that might have caused a fuel tank or engine to explode, CBS News reported.

Alexander Smirnov, deputy director for Metrojet, told reporters in Moscow that the condition of the plane and its crew should be beyond suspicion.

"We (are) excluding technical problems and rejecting human error," Smirnov said. "The only possible explanation could be an external impact on the airplane."

Smirnov said technical difficulties would not have caused the Airbus A321-200 to break up at high altitude Saturday, killing all 224 people aboard. Metrojet also said the captain and crew were too experienced to have committed a mistake so egregious, and that the plane's safety technology would have not allowed it.

Russian aviation chief Aleksand Neradko rejected Metrojet's claims, telling Russia's news channel Rossiya 24 that Metrojet's position was "premature and not based on real facts."

The charter flight bound for St. Petersburg, Russia, crashed about 23 minutes after takeoff Saturday from the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. An insurgent affiliate of the Islamic State operating in the Sinai Peninsula claimed responsibility.

The Egyptian government quickly attempted to rule out terrorism, saying Islamic groups in the Sinai don't have the military capability to shoot down a plane at high altitude. Russian investigators have also dismissed the insurgents' claim.

James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said a terrorist strike from an Islamic extremist group could not be ruled out yet, but so far no physical proof of terrorism had been revealed.

Peter Goelz, a former director of the National Transportation Safety Board, told USA TODAY that politics and economics play a role in the early narrative.

"The problem is the intersection between national interests, security and safety," Goelz said.

Goelz said the airline wanted to quickly distance itself from fault in the crash. Egypt, which was quick to rule out terrorism, relies on tourism dollars from Sharm el-Sheikh and doesn't want to scare off tourists, he said. Russia doesn't want to be viewed as the victim of a successful terror attack, Goelz added.

Investigators are focusing their probe on the theory that the plane broke up in the air, citing a debris field that stretches over more than 7 square miles in the Sinai Peninsula. The Russian government said more than 100 bodies and dozens of body parts were returned to St. Petersburg early Monday.

The search to recover bodies in the primary debris field of more than 7 square miles, has been completed, and the search zone was being expanded, the Associated Press reported.

The data and cockpit voice recording black boxes have been recovered. Goelz said the boxes could be important — or have little to say if the they were cut off a "nanosecond" after a fatal event took place.

"The way this plane came apart is pretty disturbing," Goelz said. "The plane apparently came apart at altitude. These planes don't come apart like that."

The 18-year-old aircraft suffered a "tail strike" in 2001, dragging along the tarmac in Cairo. Metrojet said the plane had been fixed and was in good condition. Investigators may also look at the airline itself. The airline, previously called Kogalymavia, changed its name after a 2011 accident on a runway that killed three people, the AP said.

The news agency described the airline's safety record as "spotty."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that it remained too early in the investigation to draw any conclusions.

"It would be wrong to articulate any preliminary guesses or voice statements that are not based on anything," Dmitry Peskov told Russia's RT news and other outlets Monday. "At least let the investigators produce some results first."