MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday suspended all flights from Russia to Egypt, the most popular tourist destination for Russians, as several airlines imposed bans on checked luggage over concerns that a bomb in the cargo hold brought down the Russian charter jet that broke apart over the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, killing all 224 people on board.
Mr. Putin signed off on a recommendation by Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service, Russia’s internal state security agency, that the flights be suspended, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, confirmed to the Interfax news agency. It was not immediately clear when the suspension would begin.
Mr. Putin also ordered that measures be taken to ensure that the Russian tourists already in Egypt, including the resort city of Sharm el Sheikh, from which the doomed Russian jet departed, could be brought home safely.
On Friday, a growing number of airlines banned passengers from checking their bags on Sharm el Sheikh flights, including the British carriers easyJet, Thomson Airways and Monarch Airlines, which were focused on bringing thousands of stranded tourists back to Britain.
The British government on Friday directed that passengers traveling from Sharm el Sheikh to Britain would be permitted only one small item of hand luggage, for “essential items” like valuables, travel documents, keys, medications, credit cards and baby supplies. The British authorities said that oversize bags, along with cargo-hold luggage, would be flowed back to Britain on separate flights.
The travelers’ situation remained in a state of flux. On Friday morning, easyJet said that the Egyptian authorities had interfered with the repatriation flights, although Egyptian officials said they were cooperating, and another British carrier, Monarch Airlines, said that departures would proceed as planned.
EasyJet said that eight scheduled flights from Sharm el Sheikh — seven bound for London, and one for Milan — would not be departing, but that two flights to the British capital would go ahead.
But Hossam Kamal, the Egyptian minister of civil aviation, said in a statement that Egypt was working with Britain, although he cautioned that the effort would be done “in the light of the resources of the airport and in accordance with international security regulations.” He said eight flights would leave for Britain rather than the originally scheduled 29.
An official at the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the ministry, called the easyJet account “not correct,” saying the decision to limit flights was a matter of capacity and “organizational procedures.”
The British government temporarily canceled all service to and from Sharm el Sheikh earlier in the week after the Russian airliner crashed on Saturday, and although some countries have continued to allow service to and from the resort city, leaving thousands of Britons with no easy path home.
Thousands of British vacationers were poised to board flights in Sharm el Sheikh after the British government negotiated with the Egyptian authorities to bring travelers home.
“We are working with the U.K. government at the highest level and working on a contingency plan,” said Andy Cockburn, a spokesman for easyJet.
Betraying annoyance at the decision by British carriers to restrict checked baggage, Mr. Kamal said in his statement that the decision would only worsen the situation at the Sharm el Sheikh airport because it did not have room for the more than 120 tons of luggage that would be left behind.
The Dutch airline KLM told passengers on a flight from Cairo to Amsterdam on Friday that they could take only hand luggage. A statement on its website said the restriction was based on “national and international information and out of precaution.”
Turkish Airlines, which halted directed flights to and from Istanbul, sent a team of security experts to Sharm el Sheikh on Friday to carry out an assessment before deciding whether to resume service, a press officer for the company said.
The cause of the crash, which could be the result of an explosive on board, a catastrophic mechanical failure, human error or an accidental explosion of fuel, remains a mystery.
On Thursday, President Obama said there was “a possibility” that terrorists were responsible for the crash of the Metrojet passenger plane, which broke apart over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.
An affiliate of the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the crash, and Mr. Obama’s comments were the first direct statement by the president that the crash might have been caused by something other than a technical malfunction. American officials have repeatedly cautioned that the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
In London on Thursday, Prime Minister David Cameron was more emphatic about the cause, saying that it was “more likely than not a terrorist bomb” that had brought down the plane, as he announced plans to bring British citizens back home.
Mr. Kamal said on Thursday that the suggestion that a bomb had brought down the plane was not based on facts and that Britain had unilaterally made the decision to cancel all flights between Britain and Sharm el Sheikh.
The New York Times
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