Soon after the St Petersburg-bound airliner went down in Egypt
on Saturday, Russians began reposting social media photographs of happy
beachgoers that had suddenly taken on tragic new meaning.
One of them showed Viktoria Sevryukova, 24, who had worked at a St Petersburg restaurant chain, posing in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Her name was on the list of 224 people who were lost with the plane. Several of her friends reposted the photo with messages of disbelief and grief.
Sevryukova’s friend, Yevgenia Beryozina, told the Observer that she felt “emptiness” and couldn’t believe what had happened. “She was my best friend. She had waited for this trip like I don’t know what,” Beryozina said. “And now she’s gone. Just like that, she’s gone.”
The Kogalymavia Airbus A321 had been carrying holidaymakers back from the Red Sea resort when it crashed on the Sinai peninsula. It was flying at 31,000ft before air traffic control lost contact with it 23 minutes after takeoff. At least 150 bodies had been recovered, including those of the 17 children on board. Both the Russian and Egyptian authorities said there were no survivors.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, expressed his deepest condolences to passengers’ relatives and declared a day of mourning for those killed, the Kremlin press service said.
Relatives gathered at a hotel near Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg. Yulia Zaitseva said her friends, newlyweds Elena Rodina and Alexander Krotov, were on board. “We were friends for 20 years,” she told AP at the hotel. “To lose such a friend is like having your hand cut off.” She said Rodina’s parents felt “like their lives are over”.
Ella Smirnova, 25, said she was due to meet her parents who were on the flight. “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,” she said.
Russian investigators and emergency workers were flying to the crash site, where Egyptian teams were already working, and searched the offices of Kogalymavia and the St Petersburg-based Brisco tour company that had contracted the flight. Putin ordered prime minister Dmitry Medvedev to create a special commission on the disaster.
Kogalymavia planes have been involved in accidents before, including a Tu-154 that caught fire on the runway in Surgut, killing three and injuring 43. The Russian state transport regulator found safety violations during an inspection of Kogalymavia in 2014, but the airline remedied the discrepancies, Interfax news agency reported.
The crash is the latest in a long line of Russian air tragedies. Russia became the most dangerous country for air travel in 2011 after several disastrous crashes, including one that claimed the lives of most of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv hockey team. Many of the incidents involved ageing aircraft and were blamed on mechanical breakdowns or pilot error. The Russian authorities later began trying to reduce the number of small airlines, which often employ older planes and can lack the maintenance and staffing capabilities of larger companies, in a bid to improve safety.
One of them showed Viktoria Sevryukova, 24, who had worked at a St Petersburg restaurant chain, posing in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Her name was on the list of 224 people who were lost with the plane. Several of her friends reposted the photo with messages of disbelief and grief.
Sevryukova’s friend, Yevgenia Beryozina, told the Observer that she felt “emptiness” and couldn’t believe what had happened. “She was my best friend. She had waited for this trip like I don’t know what,” Beryozina said. “And now she’s gone. Just like that, she’s gone.”
The Kogalymavia Airbus A321 had been carrying holidaymakers back from the Red Sea resort when it crashed on the Sinai peninsula. It was flying at 31,000ft before air traffic control lost contact with it 23 minutes after takeoff. At least 150 bodies had been recovered, including those of the 17 children on board. Both the Russian and Egyptian authorities said there were no survivors.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, expressed his deepest condolences to passengers’ relatives and declared a day of mourning for those killed, the Kremlin press service said.
Relatives gathered at a hotel near Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg. Yulia Zaitseva said her friends, newlyweds Elena Rodina and Alexander Krotov, were on board. “We were friends for 20 years,” she told AP at the hotel. “To lose such a friend is like having your hand cut off.” She said Rodina’s parents felt “like their lives are over”.
Ella Smirnova, 25, said she was due to meet her parents who were on the flight. “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,” she said.
Russian investigators and emergency workers were flying to the crash site, where Egyptian teams were already working, and searched the offices of Kogalymavia and the St Petersburg-based Brisco tour company that had contracted the flight. Putin ordered prime minister Dmitry Medvedev to create a special commission on the disaster.
Kogalymavia planes have been involved in accidents before, including a Tu-154 that caught fire on the runway in Surgut, killing three and injuring 43. The Russian state transport regulator found safety violations during an inspection of Kogalymavia in 2014, but the airline remedied the discrepancies, Interfax news agency reported.
The crash is the latest in a long line of Russian air tragedies. Russia became the most dangerous country for air travel in 2011 after several disastrous crashes, including one that claimed the lives of most of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv hockey team. Many of the incidents involved ageing aircraft and were blamed on mechanical breakdowns or pilot error. The Russian authorities later began trying to reduce the number of small airlines, which often employ older planes and can lack the maintenance and staffing capabilities of larger companies, in a bid to improve safety.
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