The Russian embassy has expressed gratitude for Zimbabwe’s standing aside it in mourning the hundreds of precious lives who were killed when an (Airbus A-321) airline crashed in Egypt on its way back to Russia on Saturday. They said this as Zim political parties (excluding ZANU PF) demanded a thorough investigation as rumours of terrorism and deliberate tampering flared.

“Благодарим всех граждан #Зимбабве, кто скорбит сегодня вместе с нами” – thank you to all the citizens of Zimbabwe # who mourn with us today, the embassy said in a statement as flowers were being laid at the consulate’s Harare building.

Tragedy hit yesterday when the Russian airliner crashed in central Sinai killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian citizens.

The MDC-T party announced demanding a thorough investigation: “As the MDC, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the families of all the passengers who perished in the Russian plane tragedy at the weekend”, the party’s spokesperson Obert Gutu said.

He continued, “as a social democratic political party, the MDC deeply cherishes the values of empathy and solidarity. We would like a thorough investigation to be conducted so that the exact cause of this mishap can be identified. Rumours are floating around to the effect that the plane was brought down by armed militants in retaliation to Russia’s military intervention in Syria in support of the President Bashir Al – Assad. We trust that the investigations will get to the bottom of what really happened.”

The Joice Mujuru aligned People First party announced saying, “we are as a party very sorrowful about the plane crash. What happened is difficult and we stand by the families and with the Russian nation at large,” spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said.

Also conveying condolences, the Tendai Biti lead People’s Democratic Party’s spokesperson, Jacob Mafume reached out to the Russian community expressing, “we are deeply saddened about this tragic event. Our hearts and minds go out to the Russian people at this moment. On behalf of our members and the Zimbabwean people we send our condolences to his excellency the Russian president and the Russian people.”
 
How the accident happened.
The Airbus A-321 had just left the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Wreckage was found in the Hasana area and bodies removed, along with the plane’s “black box”. An official described a “tragic scene” with bodies of victims still strapped to seats.
Egypt’s prime minister said no “irregular” activities were to blame.
Sinai has an active militant network, and on Saturday afternoon, jihadis allied to the so-called Islamic State made a claim on social media that they brought down flight KGL9268.
But Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov told Interfax news agency that “such reports cannot be considered true”. No evidence had been seen that indicated the plane was targeted, he said.
Egypt’s civilian aviation ministry said the plane had been at an altitude of 9,450m (31,000ft) when it disappeared.
Security experts say a plane flying at that altitude would be beyond the range of a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile (Manpad), which Sinai militants are known to possess. (ZimEye/Additional Reporting BBC)