About 1,500 British tourists were expected to return to Britain on Saturday from Sharm el-Sheikh, after airlines began operating flights from the Egyptian resort following the Russian plane crash that killed all 224 people on board.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s aviation minister has confirmed that an as yet unidentified noise was picked up by on-board recorders.
A Thomas Cook flight carrying about 220 people left Sharm at about 3pm on Saturday bound for Gatwick. A second Thomas Cook flight was also expected to leave for Manchester.
Two Monarch flights, to Bristol and Manchester, were also due to take off on Saturday, as were two Thomson planes bound for Manchester.
Monarch also said it planned to operate two flights on Sunday, one to Gatwick and one to Birmingham.
EasyJet had two flights carrying another 445 passengers due to land at Luton. The company has about 4,000 passengers in Sharm el-Sheikh, of whom 1,000 have been delayed. The airline also said it planned to run two flights on Sunday to repatriate British tourists.
EasyJet flew some holidaymakers back to the UK on Friday, meaning it will have brought more than 800 people home. But the company said on Saturday it still had more than 3,000 passengers in the resort waiting to fly. Two airliners are on standby in Cyprus ready to collect passengers, a company spokesman said.
British Airways sent an empty plane to Sharm on Saturday morning to return holidaymakers to Gatwick.
UK government officials warned that increased safety measures meant many holidaymakers would be forced to stay in the resort longer than they had hoped.
A Department for Transport spokesman said that the limited number of flights able to leave Sharm el-Sheikh each day for the UK meant that tour operators or airlines were likely to advise some customers to remain at their resort.
“We understand that tour operators and airlines are working to ensure that where people need to extend their stay at their resort, necessary costs will be covered,” he said.
“It is important that people stay at their resort until they have confirmation from their airline or tour operator that they are on a flight back to the UK and that they follow their airline’s advice on the appropriate arrival time at the airport.”
On Saturday afternoon, Egypt’s civil aviation minister said an unidentified noise was picked up in the final seconds before the plane crashed.
Hossam Kamal said the sound was captured by cockpit voice recorders in the moments before the aircraft broke up in mid-air, but that the source had not yet been identified. He said investigators were looking at “all possible scenarios” as to the cause of the crash last Saturday.
The aircraft was flying at 30,888ft and was still gaining altitude when it exploded, 23 minutes and 14 seconds after it left Sharm el-Sheikh airport. Debris was found scattered over an eight-mile stretch, which Kamal said was consistent with a plane breaking up.
The Airbus 321, operated by Russian airline Metrojet, crashed last Saturday, killing all 224 people on board. Militants of the Islamic State (IS) terror group in the Sinai peninsula have claimed that they downed the plane. The wreckage is now being taken to Cairo, and investigators, made up of teams from Egypt, Russia, France, Germany and Ireland, as well as advisers from Airbus, will examine it.
Kamal said all possibilities as to the cause of the in-flight break-up were being considered.
He said: “It could be lithium batteries with one of the passengers, it could be an explosion in the fuel compartment. All the scenarios are on the table – I cannot exclude anything.”
