Clapper doesn't rule out ISIS involvement in downing of Russian plane
Two days after the fatal plane crash over Egypt, the director of U.S. national intelligence on Monday said he wouldn't rule out the possibility that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) could shoot down an airliner.
"It's unlikely, but I wouldn't rule it out," said James Clapper at the Defense One Summit in Washington.
But the U.S. intelligence community has determined with high confidence that there was no external event -- in other words, no missile or other object from outside the aircraft -- that caused the structural failure of the Russian plane. Sources in the intelligence community told CBS News they drew this conclusion based on imagery of the plane and the crash site.
Clapper said the U.S. does not have "any direct evidence of any terrorist involvement yet," but he also acknowledged that ISIS is active in that region.
"There is a very aggressive [ISIS] chapter in the Sinai, but we really don't know, and I think once the black boxes have been analyzed, which they recovered, perhaps we'll know more," he said.
ISIS had claimed responsibility on Twitter for the crash, but officials have said those claims were inaccurate.
The Metrojet Airbus jetliner broke up in the air at a high altitude before crashing in the Sinai Peninsula just 23 minutes after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
All 224 people on board died.
The owners of the plane, which was bound for St. Petersburg, Russia, claimed Monday that the crew reported no problems during the flight and the cause of the crash could only be the result of a mechanical issue.
Egyptian and other officials said it could take a month or more to analyze the black box recorders and examine the debris.