An Airbus A321 crashed today in the Sinai. On board were 224 passengers, plus crew. A group affiliated with Islamic State in Egypt claims that they brought down the 18-year old airliner - which claim is contested by a Russian Transport Minister, who describes the claim as inaccurate.
Both black boxes have been recovered. The plane had split apart at some point near the tail section. There are photos of some of wreckage at this link (HuffPo).
The airliner was at cruising altitude when radar contact was lost, it crashed in a mountainous region in the Sinai peninsula. Operated by Kogalymavia as Metrojet, the flight was from Sharm el-Sheikh, a Red Sea resort to St Petersburg, Russia; amongst the 224 passengers were 217 Russians and 3 Ukrainians.
At the time of the linked report at least 100 bodies had been recovered from the crash site. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a national day of mourning this Sunday for the families and victims of the crash.
Updated information is contained in a report printed at USA Today. This perhaps points to technical difficulties as the cause of the crash.
An Egyptian aviation official says the pilot of the Airbus A321 had reported technical difficulties before losing contact with air traffic controllers. Ayman al-Muqadem, a member of the Aviation Incidents Committee, said the pilot had reported his intention to attempt to land at the nearest airport.
An unidentified source in Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency told RIA that the plane took off from Sharm El-Sheikh, a popular Red Sea resort, early Saturday and disappeared from air traffic controllers' radar screens 23 minutes later after reaching an altitude of 31,000 feet.
Flight Radar 24, a flight tracking service, said the plane was descending at 6,000 feet per minute when it went off radar.
Despite which, exercising understandable caution, French and German airlines both indicate they will be rerouting planes traveling to the region, until the cause of the crash is established, so they avoid the Sinai.