Daily News Egypt quotes Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Fellow Zack Gold on how an ISIS-affiliated group could have placed a bomb on the Russian plane that crashed in Sinai:
Meanwhile, Zack Gold, a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, believes that the description of physical evidence comes in line with Western and other statements on the overwhelming likelihood that terrorism was the cause of the crash.
“We often think of aviation terrorism as being very complicated because Al-Qaeda has spent years designing undetectable explosives. However, the device that Russian officials describe, a less than 1 kg improvised explosive device (IED) made from TNT, is quite simple when compared to IS-Sinai’s capabilities,” he said.
Gold also believes that the more complicated part of the plot is getting an IED, or the materials and a bomb-maker, into Sharm El-Sheikh and then infiltrating the airport. “However, this likely did not require a grand conspiracy, in which a number of security officials were either paid off or were members of the group. One airport employee with access to the plane could have operated under the noses of Egyptian authorities,” he added.