Flight 7K9268 Broke Into Pieces Midair, Too Early to Determine Cause

© AFP 2015/ KHALED DESOUKI

or Sorochenko, an official with the Intergovernmental Aviation Committee, made the comments after inspecting the crash site on Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

The Russian Airbus A321 which crashed in Egypt Saturday killing 224 broke into pieces midair, but it is still too early to determine the cause, Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) said Sunday.

"It is too early to draw conclusions," MAK executive director Viktor Sorochenko said. "Disintegration of the fuselage took place in the air, and the fragments are scattered around a large area [about 20 square kilometers]", the official added.

In a separate development, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the investigation into the crash causes could take months.

"This is a complicated matter and requires advanced technologies and broad investigations that could take months," he told army recruits in a televised speech on Sunday.

© REUTERS/ Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Russian Investigators in Egypt Face Enormous Task, As Bodies Scattered 8 Km Around Crash Site

A Kogalymavia/Metrojet Airbus A321 en route to St. Petersburg from the resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh with 217 passengers and seven crew on board, crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, leaving no survivors. The Sinai air crash became the deadliest air accident in the history of Russian aviation, surpassing the 1985 disaster in Uzbekistan, where 200 people died.