A routine flight from a popular holiday destination turned tragic as a plane carrying 224 passengers, including families, met a fatal end shortly after takeoff. The exact cause of the crash remained uncertain until a decade later when an aviation expert shed light on the mystery.
Metrojet Flight 9268 departed Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh airport bound for Russia on October 31, 2015, at 5:58 am. The Airbus A321 swiftly climbed into the morning sky, but disaster struck just 23 minutes into the flight when the aircraft exploded at 31,000 feet, leading to a catastrophic mid-air breakup.
The plane spiraled into an uncontrolled descent before crashing into the Sinai desert, claiming the lives of all 224 individuals aboard, which included 25 children, seven crew members, and passengers of various nationalities. Most passengers suffered fatal barotrauma due to the sudden decompression.
Initial investigations pointed towards terrorism as the probable cause of one of the deadliest plane crashes in history. While some reports mentioned technical issues raised by the pilot, others speculated about the involvement of a potential onboard bomb, possibly smuggled by airport staff linked to terrorist groups.
Although ISIS claimed responsibility for the explosion, Egyptian authorities did not confirm it as a targeted attack. The incident was never officially attributed to terrorism, leaving the crash shrouded in mystery for years. Aviation expert Julian Bray later suggested that signs of a terror attack were overlooked, indicating the possible use of an onboard bomb.
Bray theorized that a hidden explosive device, potentially concealed in luggage loaded last-minute onto the plane, caused the catastrophic explosion. He emphasized the destructive power of even a small bomb in fracturing fuel lines, disrupting electrical systems, and igniting fires. The expert proposed various methods through which the terrorists could have triggered the explosive device during the ill-fated Flight 9268.