The Egyptian judiciary issued a final ruling in the case of the crash of the Russian Airbus A321 over the Sinai Peninsula in 2015, rejecting the right of two Turkish and Russian companies to receive compensation exceeding $94 million.
Nearly 11 years after the crash of the Russian plane over Sinai on October 29, 2015, which resulted in the death of all its passengers and crew members in one of the most devastating air disasters, the Ismailia Court of Appeal, El Tor District, issued its ruling on the appeal filed by a Turkish company and a Russian company, regarding their demand for financial compensation from the government exceeding $94 million.
The details of the case go back to “Prince Tourism, Jewelry, Transportation and Foreign Trade Company, a Turkish company, filed a lawsuit against the Prime Minister, the Minister of Civil Aviation and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Airports Company, demanding that they be obligated to pay $94 million, 184 thousand, 699 and 9 cents, or its equivalent in Egyptian pounds, as compensation for the losses it suffered following the crash of the Russian plane in October 2015.”
The company stated that "its activity in the Egyptian market was based on organizing tourist trips through the Russian company Metrojet and a number of tour operators, and that the cessation of Russian tourism after the incident caused significant financial losses."
In January 2025, the South Sinai Primary Court issued a ruling rejecting the lawsuit, after finding that the elements of tort liability were not available, and that the company was not proven to enjoy the protection guaranteed by the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement signed between Egypt and Turkey.
The Turkish company did not accept the ruling, so it filed an appeal demanding its cancellation, while the Russian company "Metrojet Kogalymavia" joined the lawsuit, and the two companies maintained their right to compensation based on what was stated in the report of the investigation committee into the accident and some documents submitted to the court.
In its ruling, the court revealed that there were observations on a number of the submitted documents, including discrepancies in some data, the submission of translations not issued by the specified authorities, as well as the failure to complete some of the documents requested by the court.
The questioning of the representative of the appealing company revealed that "its investments inside Egypt were not direct, but were carried out through a Russian company, without providing proof of fulfilling the necessary legal procedures to conduct business inside the country."
The court ruled to accept the appeal in form, and to accept the intervention of Metrojet Kogalymavia as a joining party, and on the merits to overturn the first instance ruling, and to rule again that the Turkish and Russian companies are not entitled to any compensation for the Russian plane crash or its consequences.
The court explained that its ruling was based on the non-applicability of the tort liability provisions stipulated in Article 163 of the Civil Code, as well as the non-applicability of the Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement between Egypt and Turkey to the two companies in question.
The court also ordered the Turkish company to pay the litigation expenses for both levels of litigation and the attorneys’ fees, and ordered the Russian company to pay the expenses of its intervention in the lawsuit, thus closing one of the legal files related to the Russian plane crash after about 11 years since it occurred.
