Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry has released a statement saying that preliminary finding from the Metrojet crash in Sinai indicated no evidence linking the incident to a terrorist act.

In a statement released on 14 December Egypt rebuked Russian and UK intelligence claims that the passenger flight, which was downed on 31 October, was due to a bomb on board the flight.

The Egyptian team is now conducting another round of investigations, the committee’s leader said, which will look more closely at the potential for a technical failure.

In response to the preliminary report, Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “I can only remind [Egypt] that the report of our experts from the corresponding special services concluded that this was a terrorist act,” Russia’s state-owned newspaper Sputnik reported on 14 December.

Jihadi-group Sinai Province claimed responsibility for the crash although the Egyptians have continued to say there is no evidence to suggest terrorist activity.

UK and Russian flights to and from the Red Sea resort have been grounded with Egypt’s airport security procedures coming under increased scrutiny.

Egypt’s tourism sector has already suffered with the tourism minister projecting direct losses of up to $280m since the crash. The tourism ministry has also said tourism revenues are likely to contract by 10 per cent in 2016.