Kogalymavia air carrier (works under Metrojet brand) believes that an “external impact” caused the crash of A321 aircraft, Kogalymavia CEO Alexander Snagovski said.

The carrier noted that the A321 jet, which crashed in Sinai Peninsula, couldn’t have collapsed in the air due to fault of one of aircraft systems.

Moreover, according to the company’s Deputy CEO on Technical and Production Matters, Andrei Averyanov, probably, the jet started descending above Sinai Peninsula after taking serious damage; the crew has totally lost control of the aircraft. This is the reason why the crew didn’t try to report about the emergency.

According to him over 1 minute the jet’s speed decreased by 300 km/h and its altitude dropped by 1,5 km. The carrier said that the only possible reason for collapse of the aircraft in the air is some kind of external impact. 

Representatives of the airline noted that previous incident with this jet couldn’t lead to the crash. We remind you that several years ago this jet collided with an air bridge. According to the management team of Kogalymavia, regular inspections eliminate the possibility of fatigue crack growth on the jet’s fuselage. “As for fatigue cracks, I must admit that the aircraft are inspected once in five years. We have inspected the jet carefully in March 2014,” Kogalymavia Flight Operations Director, Alexander Smirnov, said. During development of an aircraft airworthiness standards are defined. These standards ensure that no fatigue crack will be able to reach a critical size during a period between inspections, he explained.

According to the carrier’s representative, 2 aircraft has already passed full inspection, the third one is being inspected and the fourth one is being inspected in Istanbul.

Moreover, according to Andrei Averyanov, on October 26th 2015 both engines of the aircraft passed the baroscopic inspection of the air flow duct and no damage was detected on both engines. All these documents were handed over to Investigative Committee and Federal Air Transport Agency.

Alexander Snagovski also noted that Kogalymavia would do its best to find out the reasons of the crash. “Management team of the company and all of its employees offer condolences to families of the victims. No words can describe our feelings and our pain. The airline will do its best to help the relatives and find out the actual reasons of the crash,” he said.