The destroyed cockpit of the plane that crashed in Kazakhstan – Ansa
The hypotheses chase each other. The most plausible, although yet to be confirmed, is that put forward in recent hours by some independent Russian media, according to which the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed yesterday in Kazakhstan may have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile from Moscow's forces. Hypothesis that is also relaunched by the Ukrainian media. The potential use of air defense systems would be in line with several reports that Chechnya was attacked by drones on the morning of December 25. Second Medusathe images of the fallen Azeri plane show traces compatible with those of a large missile impact on the tail section of the aircraft. Some survivors also said they heard an explosion while the plane was in flight. The aircraft's black box has meanwhile been recovered from the crash site and will soon be analysed, according to Azerbaijani media.
But let's go back to Christmas morning. A plane with 67 people on board, in flight between Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and Grozny, the capital of the Russian Caucasian Republic of Chechnya, crashes about three kilometers from Aktau impacting the ground and exploding, then starting a gigantic fire. Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev spoke of “38 deaths” in the evening, while 29 were hospitalized, including three children. The general prosecutor's office of Azerbaijan, the Caucasus country from which the plane took off, had previously stated that “32 people survived” without providing the death toll.
The authorities currently believe that “all scenarios are possible” in evaluating what happened and that checks are ongoing. Azerbaijan Airlines initially claimed that the plane had hit a flock of birds, a version that was later withdrawn. However, the Russian civil aviation agency (Rosaviatsia) had also initially spoken of a “collision with birds”, citing “preliminary” information. The regional department of the Kazakh Ministry of Health instead reported, in a statement, the “explosion of a balloon” on board the plane, without further details. However, there are many mysteries: according to the Flightradar24 service, which tracks aircraft movements in real time, the plane crossed the Caspian Sea, deviating from its normal route, before flying over the area where it crashed. The Kazakh Interior Ministry announced the opening of an investigation for “violation of operational and safety regulations of air transport”.
According to initial information, there were 37 Azerbaijani citizens, six Kazakh citizens, three Kyrgyz citizens and 16 Russian citizens on board the plane. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who arrived in Russia to participate in the informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) near St. Petersburg, with Vladimir Putin, decided to interrupt his visit and urgently return to Azerbaijan, where a day of national mourning was declared.
