LONDON — Five days after a Russian jetliner broke apart high above the Sinai, Russia and Egypt on Thursday dismissed Western suggestions that a terrorist bomb may have caused the crash that killed all 224 people on board, saying the speculation was a rush to judgment.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who spoke to the presidents of both countries in the very public dispute, said he had grounded all British flights to and from the Sinai Peninsula because of “intelligence and information” indicating a bomb was the probable reason a Metrojet Airbus A321-200 plane had crashed Saturday in the desert.
British and U.S. officials, guided primarily by intelligence intercepts and satellite imagery, have suggested gingerly it might have been the work of the Islamic State terrorist group and its affiliates in the Sinai.
“We don’t know for certain that it was a terrorist bomb, … (but it’s a) strong possibility,” Cameron said.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi later stood beside him at a news conference after an awkward meeting. Cameron also spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin to explain that concern for the safety of British citizens had led the government to go public with its suspicions about a bomb.
Russia and Egypt insist the investigation into the crash must run its course before any conclusion is reached.
The Metrojet plane, carrying mostly Russians, crashed 23 minutes after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for St. Petersburg.
U.S. and British leaders have stopped short of a categorical assignment of blame in the crash, but Cameron said it is “more likely than not” that the cause was a bomb.
President Barack Obama said the U.S. was taking “very seriously” the possibility that a bomb brought down the plane. His comments, in an interview with a Seattle radio station, followed an earlier statement by White House spokesman Josh Earnest, who said the U.S. can’t rule out the possibility of terrorism.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for bringing down the plane.
