Sunday, November 8, 2015

Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 Crash: Another Post 9/11 Geopolitical Game Changer?



Given that this means another draconian ratcheting up of airport security, does the October 31, 2015 Metrojet Flight 9268 crash become another post 9/11 geopolitical game changer? 

By: Ringo Bones 

The incident is not only tragic, but also conspiracy theory laden as well. Before the European investigators point to the cause of the crash with 99-percent certainty as a smuggled explosive device based on the recovered flight data recorders / black boxes, Russian publications loyal to the strongman Vladimir Putin already published articles pointing the blame on MI-5, CIA agents and even a handful of Ukrainians currently fighting for Islamic State / Daesh, and this was a few hours before Islamic State / Daesh claimed responsibility for successfully smuggling an explosive device onboard Metrojet Flight 9268. But will this tragic incident change the geopolitical tempo on how Vladimir Putin’s Russia deals with Islamic State / Daesh Syrian home-base? 

The aircraft was an Airbus A321-231 operated by the Russian airline company Kogalymavia – branded as Metrojet to non native Russian speakers that exploded in mid air over northern Sinai back in October 31, 2015 was carrying 217 passengers and 7 crew members. A majority of them were Russian and the flight was en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. Russian conspiracy theorists loyal to Vladimir Putin were quick to point the blame at Russia’s “Western enemies” as a supposed payback for the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 that was “allegedly” shot down by a BUK surface-to-air missile last year by Russian loyalists over the contested Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. 

Stranger still, before the flight data recorders / black boxes were recovered by investigators, a Pentagon reconnaissance satellite that was scheduled to overfly the Sinai region managed to “see” the midair explosion of the Metrojet Flight 9268 in real time but was shelved by the analysts who were manning the satellite at the time because they thought that it could just be a car-sized meteorite exploding high over the northern Sinai region. Whatever the powers-that-be decide to do with the facts currently on the table with regards to the tragic crash of Metrojet Flight 9268, it would still be us civilians who will bear the brunt of increased and very intrusive airport security checks.