Sinai crash: St.Petersburg’s bells toll for each of 224 victims as new intel says bomb to blame
The memorial service for A321 crash victims at St. Isaac Cathedral in St. Petersburg. © Igor Russak / RIA Novosti
St. Petersburg residents during the memorial service for A321 crash victims at St. Isaac Cathedral in St. Petersburg. © Igor Russak
Moscow: Thousands of people in St. Petersburg’s main cathedral commemorated the victims of the plane crash in the Sinai desert on October 31. Experts are homing in on the cause of the incident, while thousands remain stranded in Egypt as flights are suspended.
It took 37 minutes for the 10-ton bell of the city’s landmark St Isaac’s Cathedral to ring for each of the 224 victims, as their families stood gathered below. It sounded twice for a 13 year-old girl and her mother, who had worked at St Isaac’s.
Earlier in the service, an emergency worker who helped clear up the debris from the plane, which was scattered for miles across the scorching sand dunes, read a poem dedicated to 10 month-old Darina Gromova, a photo of whom waiting for her family’s plane to take her to Egypt has become a symbol of the crash.
On Sunday, the fourth Russian plane containing the remains and belongings of the passengers of the doomed flight landed in St. Petersburg. DNA has been taken from the victims’ families for tests to identify their deceased relatives. The bodies of fewer than 100 victims have been identified so far.
About 70 thousand Russian tourists remain stranded in Egypt, as Russia suspended all flights between the two countries on Friday. The move came following the emergence of evidence that the crash may have been caused by an act of terrorism, most probably an explosion in the luggage compartment. An edict confirming the suspension was signed by President Vladimir Putin on Sunday.
More than 11 thousand have already been brought back by specially-chartered flights that arrived empty at what is Russia’s second most-favored international holiday destination after Turkey. The passengers had to board with only hand luggage because of concerns about security at Egyptian airports. Soviet-made cargo planes provided by the air force have made two separate flights loaded with 30 tons of luggage to return the luggage to Moscow, from where it will be transported around the country.
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