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Follow the link to learn moreThe crew of the Russian Airbus A321 passenger jet that crashed in the Sinai peninsula had no information about any malfunctions on board the plane prior to the moment of the crash, a source in Cairo familiar with the situation told Interfax.
"The recordings of the crew's conversations with air traffic controllers indicate that the situation on board [the plane] was standard four minutes before the plane disappeared from radar screens. The crew was engaged in routine communication with air traffic controllers. Nothing pointed to any malfunctions on board. The crew did not report them either," the source said.
However, "in the recordings, sounds uncharacteristic of a standard flight precede the moment of the airliner's disappearance from radar screens," he said.
The crew did not send out a distress signal, the source said.
"The recordings suggest that an emergency situation occurred on board [the airplane] unexpectedly, took the crew by surprise and the pilots had no time to send out a distress signal," the source added.
