At 5:50 on the morning of October 31, 2015, Metrojet Flight 9268 received takeoff clearance from Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, the travel hub for Egypt’s best-known Red Sea tourist destination. At the controls of the Russian plane was Valery Nemov, a pilot with more than 12,000 hours of flight time. He and his co-pilot, Sergei Trukachev, spooled the engines on the 18-year-old Airbus 321-200 nearly up to full power. It was two minutes before sunrise, but already a warm westerly breeze was blowing waves of heat off the sands of the Sinai Desert. Most of the 217 passengers were women and young children taking a break in the Egyptian sun. Others on the flight had apparently enjoyed a...
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