Russia opens criminal case after airliner crashes in Egypt: agencies

Russia's top Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case against airline Kogalymavia after one of its planes with 224 people aboard crashed in Egypt on Saturday, Russian news agencies said, quoting the committee's spokesman.

The Airbus A-321 jet was flying from the Egyptian Sinai Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in Russia when it went down in a desolate mountainous area of central Sinai soon after daybreak. Most of those aboard appeared to have died, an Egyptian security officer at the scene said.

RIA news agency reported that the Investigative Committee's case had been brought under an article regulating "violation of rules of flights and preparations for them".

Interfax reported committee spokesman Vladimir Markin as saying that the case had been brought under Article 263 of the Criminal Code: "Violation of the safety rules for movement and exploitation of air, sea or internal water transport".

Markin also said that a group of investigators and crime experts had been formed and would head to Egypt.

"They will operate in agreement with the competent organs and together with the representatives of the Republic of Egypt in accordance with the norms of national and international law," Markin said, according to Interfax.