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Breaking: Russian aircraft crashes in Egypt, office of Prime Minister Ismail confirms

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A Russian passenger aircraft has crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the office of Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has confirmed.

A “Russian civilian plane… crashed in the central Sinai,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

“Prime Minister [Ismail] is expected to meet the concerned ministries and competent authorities to follow up on the accident of the Russian civilian plane that fell in central Sinai,” the premier’s office added.

The plane was reportedly chartered by Russian airline Kogalymavia and was carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members.

Egyptian research teams have found debris belonging to the aircraft in the Sinai Peninsula, the DPA reported.

A frenzy of initial reports provided conflicting information about the fate of the Airbus A-321 passenger plane as it initially lost contact with Egyptian air traffic control.

While some reports, including one by Sky News Arabia, said the plane had crashed, Egyptian air traffic officials were quoted in other reports as saying that the plane had contacted Turkey and had “safely” passed through Egyptian skies.

Russian media, including RT and Ria Novosti, cited Russian air traffic officials as only saying that a Russian plane had disappeared from radars in Egypt.

The office of Egyptian Prime Minister Ismail put an end to all the speculation when it officially confirmed that the plane had indeed crashed.

(This item is being updated.)

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