“Azerbaijan was shaken by tragic news”deplores Azernews. Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243, which departed from Baku on Wednesday morning, attempted an emergency landing near Aktau, a city in Kazakhstan, and caught fire in circumstances that remain to be clarified. On board this plane bound for Grozny, 62 passengers, mainly Azerbaijani, and 5 crew members. The crash left 38 dead.
“It’s incredible that so many people survived”entrusted to Times of Central Asia a resident of the region who said he participated in the rescue efforts and observed the significant damage to the fuselage. More than 400 people, nearly 80 vehicles and 10 canine brigades were quickly dispatched to the site, specifies ABC News. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has canceled a trip to St. Petersburg. National day of mourning declared in Azerbaijan, notes NBC News.
The aircraft is an Embraer 190, a Brazilian manufacturer. He “is considered a reliable airliner and is also used in Europe”underlines the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
He would have had to change his route because of the fog, if we are to believe the BBC. And 25 minutes before landing in Grozny, the crew announced to the control tower at Aktau airport that they had to land urgently. A collision with birds was the hypothesis put forward by the authorities on Wednesday morning to explain the plane's problems. Flightradar 24 also noted GPS congestion in the area which could have disrupted the pilot.
A region flown over by Ukrainian drones
“As the hours passed, however, a much more worrying hypothesis began to take shape: that the Baku-Grozny flight was shot down by mistake by the Russian counter-aircraft”note it Republic.
Medusa developed this theory. “In the images of the fuselage, at the rear, we see traces similar to damage caused by an anti-aircraft missile,” says the Russian media. “In addition, images appearing on social media show cabin depressurization and holes in the seats (probably due to fragments)”adds the site.
The hypothesis of GPS congestion disrupting the piloting of the plane does not convince Andrei Menshenin, a journalist specializing in aviation interviewed by the New York Times. “Every day, hundreds of planes fly in areas where GPS is spoofing”indicates the expert.
The Wall Street Journal recalls for its part that the plane had been flying over a region targeted by Ukrainian drones for several weeks. The daily mentions that Russia shot down 59 drones in the hours preceding the accident of flight J2-8243. Azerbaijan Airlines has in any case announced that it will no longer serve Grozny and Makhachkala “until the investigation into the causes of the disaster is completed”notes The evening.
“Perhaps the fact that the investigation is not carried out by Russian experts but by Kazakh, Brazilian and (probably) Azerbaijani specialists will help establish the truth this time”speculates Medusa.
