Ukraine International Airlines flight PS-5265 made an emergency landing at Boryspil International Airport, Ukraine, on July 30th.
The Boeing 737-900 plane heading from Lviv, Ukraine, to Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, was diverted due to a bird strike.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
Danish Air Transport flight DX-349 made an emergency landing in Bratislava, Slovakia, on May 21st.
The Airbus A320-200 plane heading from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, to Billund, Denmark, was diverted due to a hydraulic failure.
The plane landed safely. All one hundred and fifty-two passengers and six crew members remained safe.
Egypt Air flight MS-621 had to divert and make an emergency in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, on August 4th.
The Boeing 777-200 plane heading from Kuwait to Cairo, Egypt, was diverted after one of its engines stopped working.
The plane landed uneventfully. All 304 passengers aboard remained safe.
The passengers were accommodated in other flights.
Solitaire Air flight FJR-200 had to return and make an emergency landing in Amman, Jordan, on July 15th.
The plane took off for Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, but had to return shortly afterwards after the crew reported a leaking door.
The plane landed uneventfully. Everyone aboard remained safe.
EgyptAir flights 631, 650, 664, 834, 921, 959, 969 had to divert and make emergency landing at Sharm El-Sheikh and El-Ghardaga Airports, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, on April 3rd.
According to sources, the planes en-route to China, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea and India were mid-air when they were told to divert due to low visibility in the air.
All seven planes landed safely. The passengers onboard remained unharmed.
In the wake of Metrojet flight 9268 crash, the Egyptian government has hired a London-based consultancy firm for auditing its airport security.
The firm ‘Control Risks’ will start by inspecting the airports in Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh.
According to Egypt’s Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal, “All Egyptian airports apply international standards in airport security… The air transport industry globally is facing several challenges… Airport security has risen to the top of these challenges, especially with the upsurge of terrorism in different parts of the world.”
Control Risks’ chief executive for Middle East and North Africa Andreas Carleton-Smith said, “There will be a comprehensive assessment, and this supports extensive work already undertaken in recent months by Egyptian and international government experts…We will be starting work directly to take forward this critical initiative.”
The Airbus A321 operating as Flight 7K9268 by Metrojet had 217 passengers and seven crew aboard and was en route from Sharm el Sheikh International Airport to Saint Petersburg-Pulkovo Airport when it crashed close to al Hassana, in a mountainous area of the Sinai peninsula, where there are insurgents. (Note in the images, it does not look very mountainous, but perhaps it is a plateau.) The plane was in the air about twenty-three minutes before it went off the grid. Deputy St. Petersburg Gov. Igor Albin said 25 children were among the dead. Nearly all the passengers were Russian tourists. Three were Ukraine. (We are looking for the passenger manifest.) Metrojet is also known as Kogalymavia.
The plane slowed dramatically before the crash. Pilots apparently experienced technical difficulties and told ATC they wanted to divert. The black boxes have been recovered. Forty-five ambulances were dispatched to the crash site to recover the bodies. The plane was 18 years 6 months old. Pilot Valery Nemov reportedly had 12,000 air hours of experience, including 3,860 in A321s.
Forensic experts were at the Pulkovo Airport in the special reception area designated for families of victims, where they gathered DNA to assist in cataloging the remains.
IS claimed on its twitter page that they took the plane down to punish Russia for its military campaign in Syria. Russia dismisses this claim.
Egypt’s Civil Aviation Minister said communication from the plane and ATC was normal; however, the Russian Embassy in Cairo says that Egyptian officials told them the pilot was trying to make an emergency landing.
The airline made an official statement:
