Russian plane crashes in Egypt

Cairo - A Russian airliner crashed on Saturday in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula, the office of the prime minister said in a statement.

A "Russian civilian plane... crashed in the central Sinai," the office of Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said in a statement.

A senior aviation official said it was a charter flight operated by a Russian company and had on board 217 passengers and seven crew members. Communication with the aircraft was lost, he added.

An earlier statement from Egypt's state Aviation Accidents Commission, Ayman al-Moqdam, stated that contact had been restored with the missing plane as it flew through Turkish airspace.