After crash, stranded tourists try to get home from Sharm El-Sheik
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt-- Airport security has been tightened in Sharm el-Sheikh, where thousands of tourists are stranded, hoping for flights back home.
They came in hordes and waited in seemingly endless lines amid unprecedented security. The Egyptians are making a serious effort to show they're on top of the problem, but it will take more than patting down a four-year-old to repair their image.
British tourist Nathan Hazelwood has been trying to leave for three days, and claimed he saw officials taking bribes.
"We saw people paying, you could like pay fifty Egyptian pounds and you'd be fast-tracked through without having your bags checked," Hazelwood told CBS News. That's about six dollars to bypass security.
Several airlines refused to accept checked baggage.
Claiming 120 tons of baggage had piled up and they'd run out of space, Egyptian authorities restricted charter flights coming in to bring tourists home.
Only eight British planes landed Friday, and commercial flights are a diminishing option. By nightfall, would-be travelers had checked back into their hotels to rest up for another check-in ordeal on Saturday.
And it may well get worse. Russian officials announced plans to bring back an estimated 40,000 of their citizens from Egypt, but said that did not imply that the plane was brought down by a bomb.