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MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. Additional security measures at Egyptian airports after a Russian airliner was recently blown up by terrorists over the Sinai Peninsula may lead to double passenger and luggage checks, Deputy Head of Russia’s transport watchdog Rostransnadzor Vladimir Chertok said on Thursday.
"There are different aspects. There can be thorough checks, i.e. once they [Egyptian security services] have made a check, then we make a repeat check of passengers and fully examine the luggage," the Russian transport official said.
"But all the same, a lot of problems remain relative to the cleaning of an airliner, the placement of the luggage on its board, i.e. the functions performed by the local personnel and it is very hard to control all this. We always see these weak points and try to remove them," he added.
The Russian government has issued an instruction to consider measures for a possible restart of flights to Egypt, the Rostransnadzor deputy head said.
"Specialists of Rostransnadzor and Rosaviatsia [the Russian aviation watchdog] have already been there together with the staff of our structures directly responsible for checks at airports, the personnel directly carrying out checks," he said.
"They analyzed the technology there and we’re trying to practice measures to ensure security," he added.
Russian Kogalymavia’s A321 plane, en-route from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, crashed in the early morning of October 31 just 23 minutes after its takeoff. The disaster site was 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the administrative center of North Sinai Governorate, the city of Al-Arish.
Flight 9268 carried 217 passengers and seven crewmembers and they were all officially announced dead following the tragic accident. Most passengers were Russian nationals. Among the passengers onboard were also four Ukrainian citizens and one Belarusian national.
Russia’s Federal Security Service Chief Alexander Bortnikov reported to President Vladimir Putin on November 17 that the airliner crash had been caused by a bomb with up to 1 kg in TNT equivalent planted on the plane.