Oh my God! Russia sends rescue teams as plane carrying 224 crashes in Sinai

A Russian plane with 224 people on board crashed in a mountainous part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, with medics at the site reporting casualties, officials said.
Ambulances reached the site and began evacuating "casualties," officials and state media reported, without elaborating on their condition.

The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the emergency ministry to dispatch rescue teams to Egypt.

"The head of state has given orders to send emergency ministry (teams) to Egypt immediately to work at the plane crash site," a statement said.

The aircraft took off early Saturday from the southern Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh bound for Saint Petersburg in Russia but communication was lost 23 minutes after departure, officials said.

"Military planes have discovered the wreckage of the plane... in a mountainous area, and 45 ambulances have been directed to the site to evacuate dead and wounded," a cabinet statement said.

Egyptian military planes have discovered wreckage inb a mountainous area of Sinai (AFP Photo/Patrick …

Officials and the state MENA news agency later said the "casualties" were being transferred to nearby hospitals.

At Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, anxious family members awaited news of their loved ones.

"I am meeting my parents," said 25-year-old Ella Smirnova, a tall young woman seemingly in shock. "I spoke to them last on the phone when they were already on the plane, and then I heard the news."

"I will keep hoping until the end that they are alive, but perhaps I will never see them again."

A senior Egyptian aviation official said the plane was a charter flight operated by a Russian company carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members.

The aircraft set off from Sharm el-Sheikh at 5:51 am local time (AFP Photo/Mohamed el-Shahed)

The official said the plane was flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet when communication was lost.

Sergei Lzvolsky, an official with the Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia told Interfax news agency that the Kogalymavia Russian airline had departed Sharm el-Sheikh at 5:51 am local time (0351 GMT).

He said the Airbus 321 did not make contact as expected with air traffic controllers in Cyprus.