INTERNATIONAL investigators have begun probing why a Russian airliner carrying 224 people crashed in a mountainous area of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing everyone on board in one of the deadliest Airbus incidents of the past decade.

    Flags flew at half mast on official buildings in Russia yesterday and entertainment television programs were canceled as part of a national day of mourning for the victims, most of them Russians aged from 10 months to 77 years.

    Cairo and Moscow have both rejected the claim from a militant group affiliated with Islamic State jihadists that it downed the aircraft flown by the Kogalymavia airline, operating under the name Metrojet, en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg.

    Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed the militants could not down a plane at the 30,000 feet (9,000 meters) altitude the Airbus 321 was flying because they would have neither the equipment or expertise to hit the flight. Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the claim “cannot be considered accurate.”

    The plane’s black box data recorders have been recovered and sent for analysis, and late Saturday Sokolov and Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov arrived in Cairo with a team of experts to help with an Egyptian-led investigation.

    Two air accident investigators from France — Airbus’s home country — are also to travel to Egypt along with six experts from the aerospace giant to help with the probe.

    Germany’s Lufthansa, Emirates and Air France all said they would halt flights over Sinai until the reasons behind the crash became clear.

    The plane, carrying 214 Russian and three Ukrainian passengers and seven crew, lost contact with air traffic control 23 minutes after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

    “Unfortunately, all passengers of Kogalymavia flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh-Saint Petersburg have died. We issue condolences to family and friends,” the Russian Embassy in Cairo said.

    Wreckage and dead bodies were found scattered over an area of 6 to 8 square kilometers, around 100 kilometers south of the town of El-Arish, Egyptian officials said.

    An Egyptian air traffic control official said the pilot told him in their last exchange that he had radio trouble, but Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Hossam Kamal rejected reports that the captain had asked to change course before the crash, saying communications had been “normal.”

    The last major air crash in Egypt was in 2004, when a Flash Airlines Boeing 737 plunged into the Red Sea after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh. All 148 people on board, most of them French, died.(SD-Agencies)