Today marks first anniversary of Sinai plane crash

Participants of Russia’s High Church Council meeting chaired by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, paid tribute to the memory of the Russian A321 plane crash victims that occurred one year ago over the Sinai Peninsula.

Before opening the meeting of the High Church Council, the Eternal Memory Psalm was sung to pay tribute to the victims of the Sinai crash, TASS reports.

One year ago, a flight by the Russian airline Kogalymavia crashed a half an hour after taking off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. All the 217 passengers and seven crew members on board died in the crash.

Egypt on Sunday commemorated the first anniversary of the Russian airliner crash in the Sinai. The aviation minister and the Russian ambassador were among those who attended a ceremony in Sharm el-Sheikh.

On Monday morning, a mass was held at an Orthodox church in Sharm el-Sheikh to mourn the fallen.

A military observer of the TASS news agency, retired Colonel Viktor Litovkin, speaking with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the tragedy has forced the Russian special services to pay attention to the safety standards when flying to the Middle East. "In this regard, we have started initiating those countries, which are interested in our tourists, undertake more careful examination of the aircraft to eliminate even the slightest possibility of a terrorist attack against Russians," he said.

"We have not resumed charter flights with Egypt until now, which shows that Egypt still has not coped with our demands. Cairo need to do a lot of work, at its airports in the first place, to restore the air service. Yet it seems that Russia insists that the Russian side should deal with security at airports, because there is no trust to Egypt," Viktor Litovkin noticed.

The expert pointed out that the creation of special terminals for Russians and CIS citizens at airports of popular Egyptian resorts could be a way out of this situation. "Of course, only on the condition of our special services working there," he added.

Professor of the Department of Business Process Management in Production and Service of RANEPA, Galina Dekhtyar, in turn, noted that the Russian aircraft will not return to Egypt until the entire amount of ground handling services in the country is get in order. 

"Once this happens, a decision to resume flights will be made. While there is no such a decision, because there is no full guarantee of safety of flights, on the one hand, and tourists' safety in hotels, on the other hand," she said.