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Herald Reporter
Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko visited the Russian embassy in Harare last week to convey condolences following the death of 224 passengers, including cabin crew members, aboard a Russian airline that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last Saturday.

“On behalf of the Government and people of the Republic of Zimbabwe and on my own behalf, I wish to express our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the Government and people of the Russian Federation, at the tragic airline crash on October 31 2015, resulting in the loss of 224 lives,” wrote VP Mphoko in a book of condolence opened at the embassy.

“Our sympathies and prayers are with all those who have lost their loved ones and the entire people of the Russian Federation. May the souls of the dear departed rest in peace.”

VP Mphoko, who once represented Zimbabwe in Moscow, was welcomed at the embassy by Russian Ambassador Mr Sergey Bakharev.

According to reports, head of the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency Mr Alexander Neradko said claims that external factors may have been the reason behind the Airbus A321 crash in the Sinai Peninsula were not based on real facts so far.

The Airbus A321 passenger airliner with 217 passengers and seven crew members on board crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on Ocrober 31, leaving no survivors.

Earlier on, the Russian airline Kogalymavia, which operated the ill-fated A321 plane, said that external factors were the likely cause for the deadly crash.

Russia’s aviation watchdog, Rosaviatsia, said yesterday that it was premature to come to any conclusions over the cause of the A321 passenger jet crash.