Efforts by a specialist British team of aviation security and military experts to help improve security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport are focusing on three issues – the security of the aircraft, the screening of staff and passengers and the screening of luggage.
In terms of aircraft security, the Sinai peninsula is already covered by a so-called Notam, an international flight safety notice forcing planes to fly above the reach of shoulder launched anti-aircraft missile fire and small arms except when coming in to land.
Sources have told the Observer that the focus of British attention a year ago, when concerns were last raised about Egyptian airport security, was on improving passenger screening to help its airports meet international standards, into which considerable effort was put.
The same sources say further efforts are now required in terms of luggage screening after the assessment of two British aviation security experts identified shortcomings that led to British flights home being delayed on Friday, and restrictions that prevented passengers checking in hold luggage.
They say the international assistance offered to Egypt, including by the British government, is designed to protect passengers’ security and to help persuade tourists in the longer term that travelling to Sharm el-Sheikh is safe.
“We are looking at all airports,” said a official familiar with the recent increase in security assistance.
At a meeting of the UK’s crisis response committee, Cobra, officials considered whether new restrictions should apply to all Egyptian airports, as the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, later decided they should. They chose to focus on Sharm el-Sheikh.
Despite claims by Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, that foreign intelligence had not been shared with Egypt, the Observer understands that the Egyptian authorities had been given access to last week’s assessment that led to travel restrictions.
Shoukry said on Saturday: “We expected that any technical information should have been shared with us before publicising it in the media.”
The Observer also understands that highly classified channels exist for sharing intelligence with governments including Egypt’s in exceptional circumstances, but it is not clear in this instance whether the raw intelligence itself was shared.
The decision to move luggage separately – that of British tourists will be sent home on specially contracted EgyptAir cargo flights – is seen as a temporary solution until new equipment and procedures can be put in place at Sharm el-Sheikh.
The suspected attack on the MetroJet flight appears to have caught many foreign officials by surprise. Concerns that violence in the southern Sinai was following the pattern seen in the north of the peninsula were raised last year after a bus carrying foreign tourists was bombed at Taba, near the Israeli border, but there have been no other serious incidents since then.
A bomb, if confirmed, would mark a sharp departure for Sinai’s jihadi groups, some of which are allied to Islamic State. They have largely focused their attacks on Egyptian police and military personnel in a flare-up of long-running friction in the area, the roots of which lie in economic and political issues in the Sinai’s poorest region.
