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Two European airlines announced they would no longer fly over the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday after a Russian passenger plane crashed in this troubled area of Egypt, killing all 224 people on board.  Lufthansa and Air France promised to avoid the airspace over the Sinai until it was clear why disaster had overtaken Flight KGL9268 operated by Metrojet, a small Russian airline. They were later joined by Emirates, which also announced its aircraft would be kept away from the Sinai peninsula "until more information is available". The Airbus A321 took off from Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh at 5.51am local time, bound for St Petersburg. The aircraft vanished from radar screens 23 minutes later, while flying at 31,000ft. The crash was the deadliest aviation disaster in Egypt's history...However, the Egyptian authorities said the pilot of the aircraft had reported a mechanical failure and asked to land at the nearest airport. Experts cautioned that it was too early to say what had caused the disaster and that Isil lacked weapons that could bring down an airliner at such an altitude...“Flight radar data makes clear there was a flight upset, but we have no idea why. There are loads of terrorist factions operating in the area and many affiliated to Islamic State. The Egyptians work very hard on security at Sharm el-Sheikh because if you wanted to destroy the tourist economy that would be the likeliest target. However the plane was too high for a shoulder launched missile, but it was 2,000 feet lower than MH17.”  Voicing caution about the possibility of a missile destroying the plane, Mr Learmount added: "In this case the aircraft appears to have come down in one piece, unlike MH17.”  But Maksim Sokolov, the Russian transport minister, dismissed Isil’s claim, saying: “It can’t be considered accurate”.  Nonetheless, Lufthansa and Air France decided to avoid Sinai until the cause of the crash was established. “We took the decision to avoid the area because the situation and the reasons for the crash were not clear," said a Lufthansa spokesperson. British Airways, however, said it would continue to fly over Sinai. “The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority, and we would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do so,” said the airline. “Our safety team continually liaises with the appropriate authorities around the world, and we conduct very detailed risk assessments into every route we operate.”