When our government says the Russian plane that crashed in Egypt at the weekend “may well have been brought down by an explosive device”, you know, in your heart of hearts that “may well” means “is strongly believed to” or even “known to” have brought it down. And you know that when they say the suspension of flights to and from Egypt is a “precautionary measure”, it means they are not taking any chances.
This is quite possibly Russia’s Lockerbie. A Russian aircraft full of Russians blown out of the sky, just a matter of weeks after President Putin took the wraps off his fighter aircraft and lined up behind President Assad of Syria. This changes everything.
The term “explosive device” has to mean a bomb rather than a missile fired from the ground. It has been a long time since an on board bomb destroyed a passenger plane so the authorities have a lot to answer for.
We have heard stories from British holidaymakers arriving back in this country, who were absolutely staggered at the lack of security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport. One passenger said he had been on a diving trip and cleared security with an enormous knife in his hand luggage which he meant to put in his hold luggage. Another woman found bottles of water in her hand luggage that she had forgotten to put in the containers. Everyone, but everyone, remarked on the lightness of security. Now our government has sent over aviation experts to Egypt to make an assessment of the security arrangements at the airport and expect to complete an investigation tonight. I do not expect them to say everything is fine and there’s nothing to worry about. You do not send your own experts to look at another country’s security systems if you think they’re fine, do you?
Parts of the world have been no go areas to tourists for many years, other countries like Tunisia and now Egypt, which already have significant areas where you are advised not to visit are coming under the no go heading. How long before an atrocity occurs in Turkey where, lest we forget, many people go to before crossing the border into islamic state controlled areas in Syria?
If this was a bomb, and it seems increasingly likely that it was, then Egypt’s remaining tourist area may be wiped out, just like Tunisia’s has been by the acts of one islamic psychopath. The question I keep asking is where next?
