Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared 1 November a national day of mourning after a Russian airliner crashed in the Sinai peninsula on Saturday morning, killing 224 people.<br /><br /> Most of the passengers on the plane, which took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and was bound for the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, were Russian.<br /><br /> Relatives of the passengers gathered at a hotel near Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport, where flight KGL9268 had been due to arrive.<br /><br /> “I was meeting my daughter at the airport”, one woman explained.<br /><br /> “She didn’t want me to come to meet her here. She didn’t want to bother us. She’s very independent.”<br /><br /> A traveler arriving at Pulkovo to catch a flight said: “I found out about the crash half an hour before leaving my flat.”<br /><br /> “It’s scary, I’m scared of even entering the airport. Honestly, I don’t know what I will see there. The sadness of people. It is terrifying,” she continued.<br /><br /> Moscow has launched an official investigation into what happe
