Efforts to decipher what actually happened to the Russian airplane which crashed in Egypt on Saturday, killing all 224 people on board; continues unabated as Russia mourns the people lost.

And preliminary findings indicate the plane seems to have broken up mid flight- plunging it to the ground in Sinai and killing all on board.

The head of Russia’s Air Transport Agency, Aleksandr Neradko, said that “all signs attest to the fact that the aircraft disintegrated in the air at a high altitude”, per the BBC.

Investigations continue, but officials are confident the claim put forward by jihadists in the region that they downed the plane can be dismissed.

The BBC further reports…

“Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed that a plane could not be downed at 9,450m (31,000ft), the altitude the Airbus 321 was flying at, by weapons the militants are known to possess.

“One unnamed official told Reuters the plane appeared to have split in two, with one part burning up and the other crashing into a rock.

“A number of major airlines – Emirates, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, and Qatar Airways – have decided not to fly over the Sinai Peninsula until more information is available.

Flight KGL9268, an Airbus A-321, lost contact with air traffic control barely an hour after take off from Sharm el-Sheik in Egypt , bound for St Petersburg in Russia. Initially presumed missing, the plane was later discovered to have crashed in central Sinai, killing all 224 people on board.

The plane was carrying 217 passengers, three Ukrainians and the rest Russian. Most were tourists returning back home, and the ship had seven crew members on board as well.