MIDDLE EAST

F.B.I. to Help Russia Investigate Plane Crash in Egypt

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NEWS CLIPS By REUTERS and ASSOCIATED PRESS 1:12
Questions About Russian Crash

Questions About Russian Crash

A week after the crash of a Russian charter flight in the Sinai Peninsula, the government of Egypt is finding itself increasingly isolated in resisting the idea of a terrorist attack on the plane.
 By REUTERS and ASSOCIATED PRESS on  November 7, 2015. Photo by European Pressphoto Agency. Watch in Times Video »
WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. has agreed to help the Russian government with its investigation into the deadly crash of a Russian charter plane in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, senior American officials said on Saturday.
Some American officials said that the Russians want help doing a forensic analysis to determine what brought down the Airbus A321-200, while other officials said that the request from the Russians was more general. Although most of the debris is scattered over nearly eight square miles in the desert, some parts of the plane were taken to Russia for analysis.
It is rare for the Russians to make such a request, which was first reported on Friday by CBS News, and some American officials interpreted it as a sign of the challenges facing investigators.
Moreover, although the F.B.I. and its Russian counterpart, the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., often work together on terrorism issues when they see a common enemy — in Muslim extremist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, for example — American-Russian relations are at one of their lowest points since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

What We Know and Don’t Know About the Russian Plane Crash 

A Russian flight crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt on Oct. 31, killing all 224 people on board. Officials are investigating what might have caused an explosion that brought down the plane. 
In this case, Russia’s reaching out to the Americans could serve geopolitical interests. The Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, has been trying to leverage the issue of terrorism, and the global threat it represents, to end the isolation and sanctions imposed by the West over the Ukraine crisis. His military intervention in Syria, while addressing a potential problem for Russia given the more than 5,000 Russians estimated to be fighting there with Islamic State militants, was also seen as an attempt to be accepted as a global partner in tackling terrorism.
While it is possible that Russia needs the F.B.I.’s experience to help solve the mystery of the crash, the Kremlin may have seen the cooperation as another opportunity to be engaged as a partner.
In Cairo on Saturday, the head of the Egyptian-led committee looking into the crash said investigators were focusing on a sound heard in the last second of a 23-minute cockpit voice recording. But he insisted that it was still premature to consider any specific explanations.
At a news conference, Ayman al-Muqaddam, the head of the committee, confirmed previously reported data about the Oct. 31 crash, which killed all 224 aboard, and said 58 investigators and technical advisers from Egypt, France, Russia, Ireland and Germany were working on the inquiry.
He did not elaborate on the sound on the recording and emphasized that all possibilities were being considered. When asked specifically what was being looked at, Mr. Muqaddam listed as possibilities a lithium battery explosion in a passenger’s luggage, a fuel tank explosion, fuselage fatigue or “the explosion of anything.”
“We can say that an in-flight breakup took place,” Mr. Muqaddam said. “Saying more than this would be entering the space of inference.”
He said nothing about the theory that a terrorist bomb brought down the plane, an explanation that has been endorsed by Britain and that President Obama has said he is taking “very seriously.” A branch of the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the crash.
The plane, flown by the Russian airline Metrojet, was on its way to Moscow from the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el Sheikh when it disappeared from radar screens around 30,000 feet. Egypt, which is highly dependent on the money tourists bring to Sharm el Sheikh, has dismissed suggestions that a bomb exploded on the plane.
In an apparent reference to the bomb theory, Mr. Muqaddam said that some news media reports “claimed to be based on official intelligence that favors a certain scenario for the cause of the accident,” and that Egypt had not been provided with that information. After fielding two questions, he left hurriedly, saying, “Please, people are waiting for me!”
Michael S. Schmidt reported from Washington, and David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo. Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting from Moscow, and Karin Roberts from New York.