Russian airline executive rules out metal fatigue as cause of Sinai jet crash

YEKATERINBURG, November 13. /TASS/. Metal fatigue could not be the cause of October 31 crash of the Russian A321 jet over the Sinai Peninsula, Sergey Skuratov, the Director General of Uralskiye Avialinii (Ural Airlines) said in an interview with TASS on Friday.

The Ural Airlines has only the jets of the Airbus A319, A320, and A321 families in its fleet.

"The jets of this class undergo regular troubleshooting, which is done only at specialized certified centers," Skuratov said. "Depending on the age of an airliner, the scale and scope of troubleshooting elements changes."

"Old jets get a huge amount of attention, their inspection and examination is very detailed," he said.

In addition, there are the so-called structure checks that are done regularly enough at the jets of each type.

"During such checks, the jets are practically disassembled so that all the parts and units could be seen," Skuratov said. "If the slighted suspicions appear, the parts and units are either replaced in full or repaired if repairs are envisioned for a concrete situation."

"The technology of troubleshooting and preventive maintenance at the jets of Western manufacture has been tested over decades of their operation," Skuratov said. "No destructions related to fatigue have been registered to date and will never be."

"It's difficult for me to make definitive statements while the investigative commission is still working but the probability of a terrorist act is really high," he said.

An A321 jet of Kogalymavia airline heading for St Petersburg crashed in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula in the small hours of October 31, just 23 minutes after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh international airport. Its fragments were found some 100 km from the city of Al-Artish.

No one of the 217 passengers and seven crewmembers survived the crash.