Airbus 321 crash: the U.S. intelligence suggested there was a bomb on board

The U.S. intelligence analysis now suggests that the terror group or its affiliates planted a bomb on the plane, Joinfo.ua reports with reference to CNN.

The latest U.S. intelligence suggests that the plane crash was most likely caused by a bomb on the plane planted by ISIS or an affiliate, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

“There is a definite feeling it was an explosive device planted in luggage or somewhere on the plane,” the official said, stressing that no formal conclusion had been reached by the U.S. intelligence community.

The assessment was reached, the official said, by looking back at intelligence reports that had been gathered before Saturday’s plane crash and intelligence gathered since then. The United States did not have credible or verified intelligence of a specific threat before the crash. However, the official said, “there had been additional activity in Sinai that had caught our attention.”

Egyptian authorities haven’t publicly responded to reports on U.S. intelligence. Since the crash, they’ve downplayed the possibility that terrorism could be involved.

It should be recalled, that in the morning of Saturday October 31, the Airbus 321 took off 5:51 a.m. from the Sinai Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in Russia, 23 minutes later the plane disappeared from the radar, and half an hour later it went down in the mountainous area of central Sinai, killing 217 passengers and 7 crew members.

Earlier the militants of an Egyptian group affiliated with Islamic State claimed that they downed a Russian flight.