Crashed plane was owned and registered in Ireland
The passenger jet that crashed shortly after take-off in Egypt today was registered and owned in Ireland.
The Metrojet Airbus A321-200 (registration EI-ETJ) is listed in the Irish Aviation Authority’s (IAA) Register of Aircraft as being owned Wilmington Trust SP Services Dublin Ltd with offices in the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at George’s Dock in Dublin.
It is known the jet visited Shannon, Dublin and Cork Airports previously.
The 18-year-old jet was operating flight KGL-9268/7K-9268 from Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt to St. Petersburg in Russia. There were 217 passengers and 7 crew on board.
It’s understood that the aircraft was still climbing to it’s cruising altitude and had passed 30,000 feet over the Sinai Peninsula when it disappeared from radar.
Wreckage of the jet was later located in a mountainous area about 40 kilometres south south of Al-Arish.
There had been conflicting reports initially suggesting the jet had disappeared over Cyprus. Later however, Egypt's Prime Minister confirmed the aircraft had crashed.
Wreckage and dozens of bodies have been recovered while the jet’s black boxes are also understood to have been found.
The Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya confirmed in a statement that flight KGL-9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 6:51am Moscow time (3:51am GMT) and was travelling to St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport.
Rosaviatsiya added that the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off and disappeared from the radar. It’s understood the crew had requested to make an emergency landing Al-Arish.
The Airbus A321-200 jet was built in 1997 was formerly operated by Russian airline Kolavia as well as Onur Air and Saudi Arabian Airlines.
