Russian Airbus A321 crash: UK intelligence suspects bomb placed in hold before takeoff

A version of a terrorist attack has emerged after British secret services intercepted communications between militants in the Sinai Peninsula, bbc.com reports.
New intelligence was received on Wednesday and the UK government’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has spent the past few days assessing what caused the plane to come down.
It is still not certain what led to the crash.

The BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says that although British officials have not ruled out the possibility of a technical fault bringing the plane down, they think that is increasingly unlikely.

UK investigators believe a bomb was put in the hold prior to take-off. According to them, someone with access to the aircraft’s baggage compartment might have inserted an explosive device inside or on top of the luggage just before the plane took off, a BBC correspondent adds.
The Kremlin calls the version ‘speculations’.
On October 31, a Russian Metrojet plane crash-landed shortly after take-off from Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheik resort. The plane had been en route to St Petersburg when it crashed 23 minutes into its journey, scattering bodies and fragments of the planes over a wide area in the Sinai Province.
The plane was carrying 217 passengers, including 25 children, there were seven crew members on board. All 224 people on the Airbus 321 – most of them Russians – died.
Belsat.eu, following the BBC