The Egyptian-led investigating committee on a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Sinai last year killing all 224 people on board said on Sunday that first phase of assembling the wreckage is now concluded.
The first stage included recognizing each part of the crashed plane and piecing them together in a way the simulates the normal structure of the plane, the committee said in a statement.
The second phase will include a study of specific parts of the plane, to probe how it first came apart, in cooperation with experts in metals, the statement said.
The committee said last month that experts from Russia and Germany are in Egypt to inspect the wreckage, with Irish, American and French experts joining the inspection.
Parts of the wreckage had been previously gathered and moved to Cairo International Airport.
The Airbus A321, operated by Metrojet, was returning Russian holiday makers from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg when it broke up over Sinai, killing all on board. The Islamic State terrorist group said it brought down the plane with a bomb smuggled inside a fizzy drink can.
Russia and Western governments quickly confirmed a bomb brought the plane down and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi later said the cause was terrorism. Britain and Russia suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh as a result, devastating Egyptian tourism, a lifeline of an already battered economy.
As the airline's country of origin, Russia is participating in the investigation. Germany is taking part as the plane's manufacturer, Ireland because the plane was registered there, France because that is where it was designed, and the United States as the engine maker's country of origin.
