On the Sky website it does say

(my bold)

To be fair, Sky News are reporting that they think there are survivors, its now on the ticker tape on the bottom. They did say it was a single source

Looking at the revised FR24 data linked in post #40, that reported temporary excursion to FL330 is almost certainly spurious.

No, the State of registry only has responsibility for an investigation if the occurrence takes place outside the territory of any State.

The AAIU's status will be that of an accredited representative to the investigation.

Wondering the nationality of the flight crew. Whilst they may have a different attitude to risk, Russian crews are some of the best handling crew I have had the privalidge to meet. So loss of control would be be a surprise.

In the Russian media it was announced that the crew was Russian, with both pilots having "great experience". However, in some forums it was written that the captain did not fly 321 for a long time....

Loss off control by Russian pilots Icepack? So what caused an Aeroflot 310 to plunge into the Siberian countryside at an incredible rate of descent?
Or how about the Perm 737 crash?

Nothing against the Russian fliers myself - we've seen LOC all too often by any nationalities recently but I just have to question Icepack's objectivity...

....with the tragic loss of life that has only just occurred it must be very tempting for PPRuNe just to say to hell with this and block all "discussion", as a mark of respect, for 48 hours or so....

Confirmed black box found
 

Confirmed : black box found

Sky News now reporting that Egyptian authorities have found the black box flight recorders.

Abnormal V alpha prot?

Boxes found
 

Beeb are reporting wreckage, black boxes found. Also bodies of pax in seats.

My experience of Egyptian ATC is that it is very poor, it is often very difficult to establish contact and a response can be "erratic". If indeed the crew were trying to declare an emergency it may well have been difficult due to congested and poorly managed ATC frequencies.

What we know so far
 

BBC are reporting (reliable ?) information now that rescuers are on site.
The aircraft is in 2 parts, there was a fire in the rear portion.
Rescuers are recovering bodies still strapped to their seats from the front portion.
The CVR and FDR have been recovered,

This implies a controlled forced landing which in turn implies a double engine failure. On the basis of this very limited information I woud be asking questions about the fuel supply.

Until the recorders are decoded everything is, of course, speculation and at this early stage the reports which we have are still suspect.

Sorry TAG...
 

This is empty BS.
A power off emergency landing is highly survivable. Done successfully numerous times.
Futhermore it would take at least 15 minutes do glide from FL310 to ground, plenty of time for mayday calls, position information etc.
This was an uncontrolable high speed dive. This is for sure.

It's so frustrating that 90% of the posts here are meaningless speculation.:confused:

With no communication and ADS-B signal stopped in air?

With a dual engine failure:
-there's time to get a mayday
-there's time to get a 7700 out
-you'll enter a fairly shallow descent if there's no fuel, a slightly steeper one if there is fuel in order to try a restart. There's no plunging involved like this plane.
-glide distance in still air will be about 70+ miles
-you'll be turning the aircraft away from high ground, this aircraft went straight on
-there are flat dried river beds in the area, no way would you head for the hills for a forced landing

As it stands, there's no evidence of any of these occurring and in my opinion there's no evidence of a dual engine flame out.

We have the aircraft in two parts which to me suggests an inflight breakup. What caused that and wether it was internal or external is unclear at this time. I can find no evidence of severe weather and the plane won't just fly iteself into coffin corner with gay abandon like others have suggested so speculation about it being too heavy or above the max alt is pretty fruitless.

AP update
 

The AP is reporting "Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top investigative body, has opened an investigation into the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt's Sinai peninsula for possible violations of flight safety procedures.
Committee spokesman Sergei Markin made the announcement in a statement Saturday."

Reports now the pilot requested an emergency landing at El Arish airport

Would be interested to know if this airline routinely carries dangerous goods.