A Russian airliner which crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, broke up in mid-air, a Russian official says.
Debris of the A321 lies on the ground a day after the Russian airliner crashed in a mountainous area of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Photo: AFP
Victor Sorochenko, the head of Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, said it was too early to conclude what caused the crash on Saturday.
"The destruction happened in the air, and fragments were scattered over a large area of around 20 square kilometres," he said.
However, he warned against reading anything into this information. "It's too early to talk about conclusions," he said.
Russia is observing a day of mourning after its worst air disaster.
Mr Sorochenko spoke after visiting the site of the debris, near the village of Hasana.
Jihadists allied to so-called Islamic State in Sinai, where such groups are active, had made a claim on social media that they had brought down flight KGL9268.
But Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed that a plane could not be downed at 9450m (31,000ft), the altitude the Airbus 321 was flying at, by weapons the militants are known to possess.
A picture released by Egypt's Prime Minister's office which shows PM Sherif Ismail (right) at the site of the wreckage. Photo: AFP / HO Egyptian Prime Minister's Office
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi also urged caution on Sunday, saying the investigation into the cause was a "complicated matter" that could take months.
Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said no evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, and IS has not produced pictures or video footage to substantiate its claim.
Analysis by BBC Monitoring found that a video purporting to show the downing of a plane did not appear to be an official IS clip, and was not shared on official IS channels.
Three airlines - Emirates, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa - have decided not to fly over the Sinai Peninsula until more information is available. Two smaller carriers, flydubai and Air Arabia, also said they would re-route flights.
British Airways said it regularly assessed the safety of its routes. BA said it would not confirm flight routes, but that it "would never fly a route unless it was safe to do so".
The plane came down early on Saturday, shortly after leaving the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Russian and French investigators have joined the Egyptian-led probe, along with experts from Airbus, which is headquartered in France.
Egyptian officials said some bodies had been recovered within a radius of 5km on Saturday, but that of a three-year-old girl was found 8km from the scene.
The plane's black boxes have been found and sent for analysis, officials said.
Russia's transport regulator said on Sunday it is to check all the airline's A-321 planes, but Kogalymavia this would not affect their operations.
Egypt's civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight, contradicting earlier reports that the pilot had asked to make an emergency landing.
The widow of the plane's co-pilot told Russian TV her husband had complained about the aircraft's technical condition.
The plane was carrying 217 passengers, including 25 children, Russian transport authorities said. There were seven crew members on board. Most of the passengers were Russian, but at least three were Ukrainian and one Belarusian.
