DUSHANBE, December 15, 2015, Asia-Plus – International media outlets report that Egyptian officials said on December 14 that they have finished a preliminary report on the Russian plane crash on the Sinai Peninsula in October and found no sign that a bomb caused the tragedy.

According to Reuters , Egypt''s Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement yesterday that a technical investigative committee “has so far not found anything indicating any illegal intervention or terrorist action” linked to the crash of the Russian passenger plane in Sinai that killed all 224 people on board on October 31, 2015.

Russian and Western officials have said the crash was caused by a bomb, and a militant organization based in Egypt with ties to the Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed responsibility for the incident.

But Egypt''s civil aviation ministry said it had completed a preliminary report on the crash and said it had so far found no evidence of a criminal act.

“The technical investigative committee has so far not found anything indicating any illegal intervention or terrorist action,” the ministry said in a statement.

The A321 aircraft, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia  (branded as Metrojet), which was flying to St. Petersburg, crashed shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 31.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) head Alexander Bortnikov said after an investigation that the airplane crashed as a result of an explosion of a bomb on board that was the equivalent of one kilogram of dynamite.

On November 6, Russia banned all flights to Egypt.