Russia sending 44 planes to Egypt to repatriate tourists

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: AFP

Moscow (AFP) - Russia will on Saturday send 44 planes to repatriate its nationals from two Egyptian Red Sea resorts, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said as suspicions grow that a bomb caused last weekend's plane crash.

Thirty empty planes will be sent to Hurghada, and 14 will be sent to Sharm el-Sheikh, the Rosaviatsya agency said in a statement.

Moscow has said a total of 78,000 of its nationals are currently on holiday in Egypt.

"For security reasons, only hand baggage will be allowed on board," while cabin baggage will be transported by the Russian emergency situations ministry, it said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/no-emergency-evacuation-80-000-russians-still-egypt-100814890.html;

[riversedge]

1. Well, seems at least Putin knows enough to

get his people out of harms way as much as possible.


.....President Vladimir Putin's spokesman insisted the decision to suspend flights did not mean that Moscow believed the crash was caused by a deliberate attack.

Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky said on Russian radio: "Putin understands that this is a terror attack, an attack which is a direct consequence of the military adventure in Syria which could not and cannot be justified from the point of view of Russia's national interests."

Summing up what the Kremlin was likely thinking, he added: "But on the other hand, let's pretend that this is not true."

[jtuck004]

2. Maybe it was the murder of a crime syndicate target...it's not like we haven't killed that many

civilians in pursuit of a target, so that is certainly within the realm of possibility.

Still no even evidence of a bomb. Just "an explosion", which is interesting since we know what bomb signatures sound like and could say with pretty good certainty if we had a recording of one blowing up. (it's that crazy science stuff). A lot of people saying it "must" have been. Could also have been a shipment of oxy canisters or lithium batteries.

Seems more plausible than a terrorist out for a stroll tossing a bomb into the plane b4 takeoff, the last theory I heard. For those younger, they used to show us that in cartoons, before it was realize that it was better as propaganda.

"Scraps of suggestive but inconclusive evidence surfaced Tuesday in the fourth day of a tense investigation into the Russian plane's falling over Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, killing all 224 people aboard and scattering debris over seven square miles of desert.

Investigators have not yet said whether the plane disintegrated in midair because of a technical malfunction, an act of terrorism or some other reason. They have begun reviewing information from the plane's flight recorders, but a report could take two to four weeks to produce, an Egyptian government spokesman said."

http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/scraps-of-inconclusive-evidence-surface-in-russian-airliner-crash-1239830

[Sunlei]

3. Russia doesn't let their own people fly out on all the International flights?

Are they afraid they won't come back if it's not a direct flight home?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Where have you got that from? (nt)

[Sunlei]

5. Seems to me russias citizens could use some of the other flights to get home. Air Port is open.

It's like these days, they don't want their citizens to have any stops in other countries where they could defect.

[Sunlei]

7. I wouldn't stay in the red sea resorts/middle east. I meant not want to go back to Russia.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. The purpose is not to restrict the citizens; it's to stop Russian planes being blown up

Your average Russian citizen who has gone on holiday is not going to say "oh, I'll just drop a couple of thousand dollars per person on a couple of indirect flights back to Moscow, this is no bother". If their government stops the airline they have a ticket for from taking them home, they're going to expect that government to get them home somehow.

[MattSh]

10. Wow