there are always going to be unknowns. you just have to be ready for them. another step on the journey... will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com i'm dara brown. nbc news has confirmed a plane crashed that took off earlier from sharm el sheikh airport. nbc's ron mott is live in london are more. >> reporter: dara, good morning. details are sketchy, but we have confirm that would this plane is lost. russian air carrier disappeared from radar over the sinai peninsula en route to st. petersburg, russia. it's krooshed north of the sinai

peninsula. and the wreckage of the plane has been located and we're told that the plane is an 18-year-old airbus a-321 and flight radar 24 radar show the jet was descending at a rate of 6,000 feet per minute before the radar signal was lost. a russian air transportation official tells nbc news that 217 passengers and seven crew members were aboard and that the flight was handed off to air traffic control in cyprus at 7:14 local time. but the pilots never made contact with atc vanishing from radar. it's suspected that many if not most are russian tourists are returning from vacation. to recap, metro flight 9626 is confirmed lost from radar, and it's crashed in the sinai area of egypt. we'll have much more as we go on throughout the morning. dara, back to you. >> ron mott, thank you for that. well, egypt's prime minister's office has confirmed the crash and it was a russian

airline carrying more than 200 passengers. roughly 200 adults. 17 children and 7 crew members. russia's federal air transportation agency says the airbus was supposed to contact air traffic control in cyprus but it never did. there are reports that the airliner had descended about 6,000 feet before the flight radar 24 lost coverage. and that was only about 23 minutes into the flight. so right now, we are going to go to anthony roman who is our aviation investigator, and mr. roman, if you'd be so kind as to tell us, this is an airbus 321. it's only 18 years old. not to speculate, but it's the middle of the day. what do you think possibly could have happened on this flight? >> well, you know, dara, that is not a terribly old aircraft. but there has been a lot of criticism about the fly by wire airbus. now, simply what that means is that the pilot has no direct

link between the cockpit controls and the flight controls on the tail, the rudder and the wings. what happens is is the pilot controls the control wheel and the control yoke and the throttles are connected to flight computers that interpret the pilot's input. if the computer accepts the inputs it then transmits that data to the aircraft flight controls. what happens is some pilots have reported loss of control of the aircraft without any pilot input. this has been a problem dogging the airbus series since its inception and fundamentally these computers have computer code just like every other computer. and if there happens to be a bug in it that can present an in-flight problem. now, contrary to that, the boeing series, that also has

fly-by wire systems has a manual backup where the pilot can disconnect the fly by wire system and fly the plane using mechanical links between the control surfaces and the cockpit. so it remains to be seen what happened to this particular airplane. but there have been in-flight problems in that regard. >> anthony, also, you know, the plane took off from egypt and it was going to russia. but the communication seems to be a little confusing. egypt has said they know it's crashed, they're recovering body, they have sent ambulances to the area. yet we're not getting confirmation from the russian authorities. they say it's missing. how can you explain the difference in the way the countries are handling this when it's one airline flying from one country to the other? >> well, the russian state media has never been extremely reliable in performing -- in

reporting the facts as emergencies occur. i would put my bet on the egyptian authorities here. this aircraft took off from sharm el sheikh airport. it was enroute to st. petersburg. the prime minister of egypt has reported the crash and that the pilots reported problems shortly after takeoff and requested an emergency landing. so i would go with what the egyptian authorities are reporting in realtime. i think that's the most reliable source at the time. >> anthony roman, thank you so much for joining us and now we'll bring in msnbc aviation analyst john cox. john, what is your impression of this crash so far? >> good morning. this is a tragedy, of course. the last six years with the airline, i flew the airbus a-321

and i found it to be an extremely good, reliable airplane. it has a very good, safe track record. and i think that what we know so far based on the very limited information that we have that the airport took off at sharm el sheikh for st. petersburg. it was just about reaching its cruise altitude of around 31,000 feet. we know that the air speed -- or the ground speed rather slowed down significantly as reported by a couple of sources and we know that the airplane ended up in a descent -- high descent rate. it's possible that those -- that information is possible indication that it made -- the airplane may have stalled. that's something the investigators will certainly look at. one of the things we do know is that the wreckage has been sighted and this means they will probably get the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder and that will tell us the tale of what happened in

this tragedy to this airplane. >> we do know that this area, they're calling it an area called cantello, it's a mountainous region. how complicated is it going to be to actually determine the wreckage and to find the box in this area? >> i think that because the -- while it's mountainous, it is a relatively desolate area. i think just getting the people there, the investigators there, the military there to cordon off the area until investigators can make a thorough process of the investigation, i think they'll be able to do that using helicopters and some other ground facilities. it will take a little bit of time, but i expect that within a few hours they'll have the initial investigators on site

and the answers will show up. even from the helicopters they'll be able to look and determine debris, the wreckage field, the debris field and that can tell us things such as -- that the airplane was intact when it hit the ground. that it didn't come apart in flight. they'll be able to start putting the pieces together pretty well, but this a-321 series airplane has been flying a long time. it's got a very good track record. it -- there's not been very many accidents involving the a-321 and airbus will be able to provide additional information to the egyptian investigators to help determine what occurred here. >> john, thank you so much for that. anthony roman, the airbus, you had touched on it before, saying it had a slight communication issue. can you tell us a little more about that? >> well, dara, it's not exactly a flight communication issue. the airbus has had a series of

problems with its fly-by wire system. john is absolutely right. this is an extremely safe aircraft with a wonderful safety record. by like all computerized jets, they have been plagued with occasional and very rare computer problems. i myself flying a private plane in stormy weather several months ago from chicago to new york suffered an in flight computer failure in which systems were supposed to be automatically redundant. the backup systems did not turn on automatically and i had to activate them manually. and made a routine landing en route. however, these kind of problems have also been evident in fly by wire computerized planes and flight. the faa has also reported structural problems as they often do with many airliners. but these particular to the

a-320 series including some delamination and debonding between the skin and the honeycomb core on the tail section of the aircraft. now, john who is very experienced flying the a-320 has said one of the possibilities is that the aircraft suffered a high altitude in flight stall. now, this would be a very rare occurrence. it did occur to the air france flight that crashed into the south atlantic several years ago. and that was a result of a frozen angle of attack indicator that provided the in flight computers with false information about the aircraft's attitude. and the pilot did not respond properly to the information that they were receiving. now, that reportedly has been

fixed, but there has been problems with the angle of attack indicator. the faa has had mandatory repair orders for that. and i'm hopeful that that is not one of the causes of this crash. >> okay. if i may, john cox, would you mind weighing in on this? i'm curious because it's 70 degrees, it's daylight and here we are talking about a possible mechanical malfunction that the pilot might not be able to override. what's your opinion on that? >> yeah, respectfully, a couple of things. one, the air france accident was a result of pin-up tubes but not angles of attack. they were in cloudy weather. this is not the case here. the airbus a-321, and in fact the entire airbus fly by wire series has redundant -- very redundant systems to ensure the control of the airplane. it is through computers but they're five separate independent flight controlled

computers, any one of which can fly the airplane. the pilots are trained about the use and the nature of this airplane. it has enjoyed a very, very good long track record. it is widely determined to be a safe airplane. there are thousands of them flying every day to even insinuate that's a fly by wire problem here i think is very premature. the information we have is this. the airplane took off out of sharm el sheikh. it climbed to cruise altitude. there are conflicts reports if there was a call saying there was a problem on board. one of the -- i think it's flight aware 24 or one of the radar sources show the airplane's ground speed slowing from about 400 knots to something around 100 knots. that indicates the potential of the stall.

the airbus a-320 series like all the airbus fly by wire series airplanes have protections not to let it stall when all of the computers are online. and so one of the things the investigators are going to look another if that flight radar data is correct, why didn't the protections work? and this is something that is -- would show this is a potential anomaly in the airplane. doesn't say what it is. to further confirm that is the rate of descent being in the 6,000 or greater feet per minute. that would also be consistent with the airplane having stalled. we don't know why. we don't know what -- what issues were going on at the time. but that's the hard data that we're hearing so far. >> right. that information -- that information we will be able to get from the black box when they do find it.

aviation -- >> absolutely. >> john cox, thank you so much for joining us and our aviation investigator anthony roman. thank you so much. if you're just joining us, just to tell you what's going on here, nbc news has confirmed that a plane has crashed in the sinai peninsula in egypt. it took off earlier from sharm el sheikh airport and bound for st. petersburg, russia. right now we go to ron mott live in london with more. >> hey, dara, i wanted to update some information. this not confirmed by nbc news, i want to stress that, but reuters is reporting and this is very significant there's the possibility of survivors of this airplane crash in egypt. apparently voices being heard. there are search and rescue teams there on site, according to egyptian officials. they have spotted this wreckage, the air force planes have spotted this wreckage. this was new of a controlled crash that the flight crew had some semblance of control of the airliner when it impacted the

ground. the plane split upon impact and according to reuters there are possible survivors of the crash. 224 people on board this aircraft, 217 of them passengers. the seven crew members also aboard and as this plane was heading to the st. petersburg, russia, we believe most if not all were vacationers who were going home from a vacation there in the resort city of sharm el sheikh when they crashed 23 minutes after takeoff. listening to your guests talk about the stall, i'm a pilot and i can tell you at that flight level, a stall with an plane of that size and that heavy with fuel is difficult to control. one of your guests did talk about there are a lot of systems on board that would override the stall and these planes are very, very safe. so that will be interesting once they find the data recorders to analyze that information. the flight radar 24 one of the websites that tracks aircraft in realtime online said that the plane was descending at a rate of 6,000 feet per minute shortly before the radar signal was lost. it was supposed to be handed off

to air traffic control in cyprus, the flight crew apparently never connected with the atc there as they obviously the flight crew had a lot of things on their hands. we can tell you there was potentially a request by the flight crew to land in cairo at some point. again, not confirmed by nbc news, so there's some details that we're trying to confirm at this hour. but to report that there is a confirmed plane crash here that left sharm el sheikh this morning and crashed about 23 minutes later en route to st. petersburg, russia. >> thank you so much for that update, ron mott and to hear there are possible survivors on board is good news. because we know there are over 200 people on this plane as you had mentioned. they're probably coming home from holiday. most of them russian tourists. right now we'll go to retired army colonel, jack jacobs. can you fill us in on this area, the instability in the region? >> well, it's large and

desolate. the first thing you think about when you talk about this happening over central and north sinai is terrorists. it is home to a lot of militants including isis and isis has surface to air shoulder fired anti-aircraft weapons. some of which they got -- they got from us, actually, indirectly we gave a large number of them to afghans when the russians were in afghanistan. and they -- they're the kind of things that take down helicopters very effectively. it's difficult to envision how a surface-to-air missile might have taken down this airliner at a fairly high altitude when the slant range of this missile that is the distance from the shooter to the target is relatively low. about 10,000 feet or so. which means that the aircraft

had to be lots lower than that in order to be hit. furthermore, the news that there was a controlled crash perhaps and that there were survivors would indicate that the aircraft probably was not hit by a surface-to-air missile and did not, therefore, break up in flight. but this is an extremely hostile area. the egyptian army doesn't go down there and it's home to lots and lots of militant groups there. >> we do know it took off from sharm el sheikh airport and going north in the area where taba is. you have jordan and saudi arabia and you have israel. we know it's a mountainous area. is there any way to actually police that area to see if there would be terrorists in the area or any sort of radar system they have set up to see what would be going on? >> no, not at all. as a matter of fact, like i mentioned the egyptian army which in theory is responsible for all of egypt including the sinai peninsula rarely goes down in the area. occasionally there are airbor airborne -- there are craft that

go down there on reconnaissance missions to see if there's anybody down there. but on the ground, the army itself rarely goes in and in particular in this area where the plane apparently went down. the army doesn't ever go there. >> colonel jack jacob, thank you. we'll be back in a few more minutes. to recap what's going on, egypt's prime minister's office has confirmed there was a crash of the airbus, carrying more than 200 passengers. russia's air transportation agency said it was supposed to contact air traffic control in cyprus but it never did. the flight radar 24 lost coverage 23 minutes into the flight as the airplane descended. how, we are getting reports from egypt this have been wreckage, bodies and possible survivors. we'll take a quick break and we'll be back after this with more information as we cover this air crash.

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hello, dara brown. nbc news has confirmed that a plane as this crashed in the sinai peninsula earlier. it was bound for st. petersburg, russia. egypt's prime minister's office has confirmed the crash and they have sent ambulances to the site. they're saying now via reuters, nbc news has not confirmed this, they have found bodies and possible survivors. there are reports also that the airplane might have split in half. we're hoping that we'll get more reports from the area as these details come in. we reported, we do know it was a russian airliner carrying more than 200 passengers. 200 adults, possibly 17 children and seven crew members. it was supposed to contact air traffic control in cyprus, but it never did. we'll be back with more details after this short break. the cold truth is...

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has three cold symptom fighters to relieve your tough symptoms. [deep breath] stay unstoppable. alka-seltzer plus. i'm dara brown. we're back to breaking news. nbc news has confirmed that a plane has crashed in sinai peninsula in egypt. it was bound for st. petersburg, russia. nbc's ron mott is live in london with more. what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning. we are hearing from reuters again, not confirmed by nbc news, but search and rescue teams on the ground have sighted more than 100 bodies at this point, including five children. according to a source quoted in the report, that the plane split into two. that a small part of the tail end burned and a larger part crashed into the rock and they

have extracted as we said more than a hundred bodies. reuters is reporting there were possible signs of survivors to the crash which would indicate that this was some sort of controlled crash, that it was not just a plunge into ground where there's literally next to no chance to survive. but perhaps it was a controlled landing into the earth there. again, 224 people aboard this russian airliner. 217 of them passengers, seven crew members. we suspect that a lot of of the people on this plane were returning from the resort city of sharm el sheikh. it crashed 23 minutes after takeoff this morning and air traffic control had handed them off to cyprus, but they never connected with atc and then the radar was lost. flight radar 24 is a lot of the sites that the aviation buffs follow. data indicate that the plane was descending at a rate of 6,000

feet a minute. that's a scary plunge, 6,000 feet per minute before it disappeared from radar and egyptian air force officials say their air force planes sighted this wreckage in the northern region of the sinai peninsula. there's nothing to indicate other than mechanical failure brought this plane down. nbc news is working to confirm the information, about at least 100 bodies being recovered and reuters reporting the possibility of survivors as well. >> ron mott from london. we have confirmation from egypt that the flight has gone down. we have yet to have confirmation from the russian authorities so we'll check back. when we come back we'll have analyst, aviation analyst john cox weighing in on the possible damage on this airline and what it means. so right now we'll cut to a quick break. we'll be back with more information on this plane crash in the sinai peninsula. can a business have a mind?

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i'm dara brown. welcome back. breaking news to tell you about. nbc news has confirmed that a plane has crashed in the sinai peninsula in egypt. it took off from sharm el sheikh airport, bound for st. petersburg, russia. we know there were more than 200 people on board.

200 adult, 17 children, seven crew members. as we heard from earlier reports, it's believed that they were returning from vacation in egypt. the airbus 321 has an operating range of about 3,000 miles. from the reports we have been getting it's a rather steady aircraft. we have gotten some reports there are now -- that the airplane actually had split in half and that it had a controlled air -- controlled landing. it lost contact about 23 minutes into the flight as it was leaving sharm el sheikh. right now we'll go to aviation analyst john cox to tell us more about what could have possibly happened. john? >> good morning. the reports are still coming in. it's still very, very, very early. if the reports are correct that the airplane is split apart, that says that the airplane hit the ground at a relatively low

speed. when you have large parts of the airplane -- >> okay, john, we'll take a break right now. we'll be back. please stay with us as we have more coverage. (vo) what does the world run on? it runs on optimism. it's what sparks ideas. moves the world forward. invest with those who see the world as unstoppable. who have the curiosity to look beyond the expected and the conviction to be in it for the long term. oppenheimerfunds believes that's the right way to invest... ...in this big, bold, beautiful world.

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i'm dara brown. we are covering breaking news. there's been a plane crash in egypt, sinai peninsula. apparently, 224 passengers are on board, 200 of them adults. 17 children, seven crew members. it's a russian flight metro jet flight, 79268. we have more information. the flight disappeared 23 minutes after it took off from sharm el sheikh in egypt. right now we'll bring in msnbc aviation analyst john cox, and john we had mentioned that the reports are saying that the airplane had a very controlled descent and that the airplane might have split in two. we know that the egyptian minister saying he has recovered bodies, but there also might be survivors. with this in play, how does this change the scenario of this airbus crash? >> well, if the reports are correct, and they have large

pieces broken in half it usually indicates that the airplane hit the ground at a lower speed and that increases the chance for survivors. that will be something that the investigators will look at as obviously they'll look at the flight path of the airplane as it impacts. but usually when there are large pieces, large parts of the fuselage, it says that the airplane -- it was at a lower speed when the impact occurred. so that's one additional piece of evidence that we've got this morning. it's still pretty early and the information is not complete yet. but investigators will be on scene shortly. but they're going to be looking for the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder as the very first parts of the airplane that they want to recover. >> john cox, thank you so much for that. let's go right now to mikey kay, a former british military play. what are you hearing about this crash? >> hi, dara. i have been tracking this all morning. the first thing that brings to my mind is the sinai peninsula is -- it's a relatively austere

environment at the moment. the southern part of the peninsula is very mountainous with quite high mountains, it's very arid and dry and there's a large insurgency going on there at the moment. you have sinai province, which is an insurgent group that's recently pledged allegiance to the islamic state. so i started to inquire a little bit and make some inquiries online and started to do some research on this. now, it does transpire over the last couple of hours that whilst the insurgencies are going on, the airplane is out of the range of any shoulder launched missiles. further reporting has indicated that the pilot requested a diversion into areesh, and

areesh is a small town on the northern part of the peninsula, on the mediterranean. the reports so far indicate that there were technical problems with the aeroplane and that the pilot was looking to divert into areesh, which is an airport to the north of the peninsula. on approach to that airport, it looks like an event -- an abrupt event, pretty rapidly bringing the aircraft down. what i would say is that, you know, speaking to john prior to this, when you look at the type of debris fields that will give a good indication as to what happened to the aircraft. i.e., was the aircraft intact when it came down or was it fragmented and did it break up? i think another useful piece of analysis, you look at the mh-17 accident which was the shootdown of the malaysian jet over the ukraine, that had a debris area of over 50 kilometers, whereas you look at the germanwings air

craft which was the german jet that crashed into the french alps that had a relatively small debris area. two or three soccer fields. so it appears as john said earlier that the aircraft had remained relatively intact, which could say it was a slow speed impact. >> being a former pilot is this a difficult airplane to fly? >> i think john cox would be probably better qualified to answer that. i flew pretty much military jets and helicopters and this is an airbus. i think john is better placed to answer that question. >> thank you. you know, john, i'll go to you for that. i know you mentioned there were communication issues with the a-321. but there's so many in the air. is this a difficult plane to fly even on a sunny day over a mountainous area? john cox, are you there?

okay. we'll go back to john in a minute. mikey kay, are you still on? >> yeah, what i would say in answer to the question was never having flown an a-321, many colleagues who used to fly in the military along with me do now fly these type of aircraft and they are very automated. the a-321 certainly from experience having reported on aircraft incidents over the last three years has an incredibly good safety record. the things that jump out for me, dara, the pilot reportedly indicated that he had some technical problems shortly after takeoff. those technical problems would appear not to be of a catastrophic nature because usually when you have a catastrophic incident, whether an engine fire or loss, you'll get a mayday radio transmission call out. this basically means that the pilot has a very serious

emergency on board and all of the aircraft that is talking on that frequency will know to be quiet to allow the pilot or the aircraft that has the serious emergency to be able to discuss what the next intentions are. usually when technical problems are severe or catastrophic nature, the pilot will be looking to turn the aircraft straight about and come back to -- come back to the -- either the airport it landed at or the nearest diversion. this aircraft seemed to be at cruising altitude which means it would have taken a good few minutes to get up to 31,000 feet and it's going for an airfield, a diversion a distance from sharm el sheikh. i know sort of the area relatively well, so it would seem that reports so far indicate that the technical problems may have escalated into something more catastrophic as the flight time went on. >> mikey kay, thank you for that. we'll turn to colonel jack

jacobs. you had mentioned the area being a precarious area right now. so colonel, can you weigh in on the instant of that region? >> yeah, it's no-man's-land. especially up in the north. the area down in the south as you know is actually fairly well populated. sharm el sheikh itself is a resort. but the farther north you get when you get over the mountains and start heading north, it gets to be first of all inhospitable terrain has been reported. but there are also lots and lots of militants -- militant groups of every stripe you can think of. at least partially because the place is extremely difficult to get to. and the egyptian army doesn't go down there and now there are air patrols all the time. and we also share information with the egyptian government. we have satellites that cover all places on the earth and we share information with allies and this area is one of them.

so we do see from time to time we can spot what's going on in the region. but on the ground, egyptians don't go down there. it raised an interesting question about checking out the area. the crash -- of the crash site. it means that the egyptian army is going to have to get an expeditionary force down there to secure the area. going to have to protect the investigators. landing is going to be difficult there. it's going to have to be by helicopter. so you're talking about a very large number of helicopters going down there. >> and colonel jacobs -- >> and egyptian people on the ground to secure it. >> and colonel jacobs, we do have reports though that they have found bodies and possibility survivors. we're going to come back to you. right now, we'll take a quick break and more breaking news coverage on this plane crash in the sinai peninsula. stay with us.

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i'm dara brown with breaking news. new details coming in. nbc news has confirmed that a plane has crashed, it took off from sharm el sheikh, bound for st. petersburg, russia. we do know that there are according to reuters there are emergency crews on site. 224 people were on board the flight. 200 adults, 17 children and seven crew members. it's a metro jet flight 79268. it's a single aircraft, it's an airbus 321. apparently there are very many in europe and in this area. rather common airplane. the reports say that the russian airliner was carrying the passengers from sharm el sheikh and going to st. petersburg. the agency says it was supposed

to contact air traffic control in cyprus, but it never did. it lost control about 23 minutes into the air. it apparently started to descend at 6,000 feet and started dropping. we do have reports coming in that there have been bodies found and also possible survivors and that the airplane possibly had a controlled landing and split in half. so right now, the emergency crews are looking at the debris field and they're obviously looking for the black box. so we're going the go to john cox who is an aviation analyst and see if he can weigh in on this. john, now that we know there's a debris field and that the wreckage is saying that the plane split in half, what does that tell us? >> it can indicate that the airplane was at a lower speed when the impact occurred. normally if there are large pieces it says that the airplane is not at a very high speed. it also increases the likelihood that all of the airplane arrived at one time, which says that the

likelihood of an in-flight breakup is much lower. these are things that the investigators are going to look at. so we -- we're getting information that's kind of coming in, bits and pieces. which is -- which is normal. we don't know a lot yet. we will know more shortly. >> john cox, thank you so much. we are covering this breaking news story that there is a confirmed plane crash in the sinai peninsula. we have more details coming in and we'll bring them to you. we know the prime minister has reported there's a crash and we are hopefully looking for survivors. we'll be back. stay with us.

i'm dara brown. we are covering breaking news that nbc news has confirmed a plane has crashed in the sinai peninsula in egypt. it took off from sharm el sheikh airport, bound for st. petersburg, russia. if you're just joining us, we have new details coming in. apparently the plane has been spotted. the reports are that it has been a controlled landing and this the plane has possibly split in half. the egyptian prime minister's office has reportedly confirmed the crash. they have sent out helicopters and ambulances to the site. there were 224 people on board the flight. 200 adults, 17 children. seven crew members. we do know that it's an airbus a-321. it is -- the airbus lost contact about 23 minutes after it took off from sharm el sheikh. there was a descent problem, there was a call for help and then it just dropped off the radar which is flight radar 24 coverage. they lost contact. we have had contact with egypt's prime minister.

they are at the site. they are trying to recover the bodies and there's hope that there are some survivors on board. we will be bringing those details to you as we get them. but right now, we are just covering this nbc has confirmed there's a plane crash in the sinai peninsula in egypt. 224 people on board. there are emergency crews on the site and as the details come in, we will be bringing them to you. please stay tuned. we have aviation experts lined up.

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ambulances and crews on site in this area which is in the eastern part of the sinai peninsula. it's a mountainous region, rather desolate area. we do know that the plane called for a distress signal. it asked for a possible change to a landing site. that was about 23 minutes into the flight as it took off from sharm el sheikh. with this coverage, we're going to tell you there are 224 people on board the airbus a-321. 200 of the passengers are adult, 17 children, seven crew members. we do know it was daylight. it was daylight in egypt when this took off. the russian authorities have not confirmed that there has been a crash. however, the egyptian authorities have confirmed that there's a crash and that there are on site. we're getting reports that there have been some bodies found. that the wreckage has possibly been split in two. that the airplane has been split in two which is giving a rather

large debris field, which we have had some aviation experts talking about and saying that that is actually a sign that the plane had a very controlled descent. there are also possible reports of survivors. so we are hopeful about that and waiting to hear news that there are possibly some survivors of this crash. it's an a-321 airbus, 224 people on board. 200 adults, 17 children and seven crew members and we do know that most of them are russian tourists. ron mott had reported from london that the passengers on board were coming from sharm el sheikh, possibly from vacation. headed back to st. petersburg. the air bus 321 is a single engine plane and it took off from sharm el sheikh airport which you can see in the lower part of your screen there. it was heading north through the sinai peninsula. it asked to have a different landing, so it diverted a little bit. and then it did crash in a mountainous area in the sinai peninsula. egyptian authorities have confirmed it.

they are on site with ambulances and helicopters. we do know there was a distress call but we are waiting for more details and possibly the finding of the black box. which we'll have time to analyze. in the meantime, just to recap what's going on, we do know that there was a plane crash in egypt and that the egyptian minister is on site. they are saying they recovered -- that there are possibly a hundred bodies already there. possible survivors. the 224 passengers on board, 17 of those passengers are crew members. right now we're going to go to aviation analyst john cox who can hopefully weigh in on this situation and possibly give us a scenario as to how this plane crash happened. john, if you would. >> well, we're still getting a lot of somewhat conflicting information. there are reports that the pilot asked to return back to sharm el sheikh. there are reports that the pilot asked to land at a nearby airport.

they're going to have to work through that, but if the reports that the pilots want to land, it says that there could be a technical issue on board. i don't -- i have not heard that they declared an emergency. a mayday call yet. the airplane starts down according to some of the websites, like flight 24. the airplane starts down at a descent rate that is high, but within the parameters of normal, around 6,000 feet a minute. airliners can descend at that rate. the biggest thing i have seen this morning that has me questioning is the ground speed slows significantly to values that are below normal. and that says if the airplane in fact not that slow then that could indicate a real problem. but all of this information is premature and the investigators are going to look for the flight

data recorder,he cockpit voice recorder. that's where with we'll learn the story of this tragedy. >> what's the reality of the airbus 321? is this a very reliable aircraft? >> it's an extremely reliable airplane. it's one of the work horses for airlines around the world. i flew it for six years, i found it to be a wonderful airplane to fly. i enjoyed it. i felt as though it was a very, very well designed, manufactured airplane. it's comfortable for the pilots as well as the passengers. it's a very capable airplane. it can fly in very bad weather very easily. it's a modern airplane. it has all the conveniences of the latest computer systems. it's fast. it carries a good fuel load. it will carry easily a couple hundred passengers. so it's a very comfortable, good, enjoyable airplane to fly. it has a very, very good safety

record. >> john cox, thank you very much. good morning, everyone. i'm dara brown. i'm in for alex witt. we begin with breaking news. a russian airliner with more than 220 people on board has crashed in egypt, sinai peninsula. reuters citing egypt's civil aviation reports that it took off at sharm el sheikh headed for st. petersburg, russia, just before 6:00 a.m. local time. it disappeared from radar 23 minutes after takeoff. search and rescue teams are at the site in sinai. let's bring in john cox, former pilot and aviation expert. you mentioned this is very reliable aircraft. but let's switch to the area. do you know much about the area in which this plane was flying? >> i have not flown there. i have flown over it.