According to the investigation by Azerbaijani authorities, the crash of its national airline’s plane on Wednesday was due to “external interference”.
The crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which killed 38 people on Wednesday, is due to a “external interference”according to the preliminary conclusions of the investigation announced on Friday, Western experts and media favor the track of a Russian anti-aircraft missile to explain this tragedy.
Russia confirmed that Grozny, the capital of Chechnya where the aircraft attempted to land twice without success before being redirected towards Kazakhstan, was the target on the day of the tragedy of a Ukrainian drone attack in a context of thick fog.
“Preliminary results of the investigation into the Embraer 190 crash” report “d’external, physical and technical interference”Azerbaijan Airlines said on Telegram. The company also announces the suspension of flights to several Russian cities.
The airline explained this suspension by “flight safety risks”without providing further details. Contacted by AFP, the Azerbaijani government did not respond to questions about the possible causes of the crash.
“An investigation is underway to establish whether it was a Russian air defense strike or another cause”Azerbaijani MP Rassim Mousabekov told AFP, while emphasizing that“We see in the photos and videos the fuselage of the plane with holes which are normally caused by anti-aircraft missiles”.
He called on Russia to apologize, “punish the guilty and promise that such a thing will not happen again”accusing Moscow of having redirected the plane after the incident towards Kazakhstan, on the other side of the Caspian Sea.
Drones and fog
The aircraft, an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 with 67 people on board, was flying on Wednesday between Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, and Grozny, capital of the Russian Caucasian republic of Chechnya.
It crashed and caught fire in circumstances that are still unclear near Aktau, a Caspian Sea port located in western Kazakhstan and far from its destination, killing 38 people, according to authorities in this Central Asian country.
While experts and Western media point to the hypothesis of a crash due to a Russian anti-aircraft missile strike, the Kremlin refused any comment on Friday. “before the conclusions of the investigation”. The Russian aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, explained that the situation at Grozny airport that day was “very difficult”.
“At that time, Ukrainian military drones were carrying out terrorist attacks against civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz”Rosaviatsia boss Dmitry Iadrov said on Telegram.
He also reported a “thick fog” which prevented all visibility “at an altitude of 500 meters”. “The captain made two attempts to land in Grozny, which failed. Other airports were offered to him. He decided to go to Aktau airport”in Kazakhstan, said Mr. Yadrov.
Grozny has been attacked by Ukrainian drones several times since Russia’s assault on Ukraine began in 2022.
Mr. Yadrov assured that Russia heard “cooperate fully with the investigation into this tragedy.” with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics on good terms with Moscow.
The head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermak, for his part directly accused Moscowassuring that Russia must be “held responsible for shooting down Azerbaijan Airlines plane”.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev promised Friday in a call with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev that “the causes of the accident will be examined in detail”.
“There was an explosion. That’s for sure.”
None of the countries involved have yet publicly confirmed the missile hypothesis, fueled by images of impacts on the wreckage of the aircraft, and according to which the aircraft was fired upon during its approach to the Grozny airport, before managing to fly to Kazakhstan where he crashed.
Azerbaijan Airlines initially claimed that the plane had hit a flock of birds, before withdrawing this information.
This version was also mentioned on Wednesday by Rosaviatsia. The Kazakh Ministry of Transport mentioned on Thursday the“balloon explosion” on board.
“There was an explosion. That’s for sure. Everyone heard it.”confirmed one of the Russian survivorsof Tajik origin, Soubkhonkoul Rakhimov, on the Russian television channel RT. But “I wouldn’t say it was inside the plane”he added, specifying that his life jacket had been “pierced by a splinter”.
On board the plane were 37 Azerbaijanis, six Kazakhs, three Kyrgyz and 16 Russians, as well as five crew members, according to the Kazakh Transport Ministry. Twenty-nine of them survived.
“I never thought my father could survive after such an explosion”Konoul Assadova, daughter of Azerbaijan Airlines steward Zulfougar Assadov, one of the survivors, told AFP.
“His back hurts, he can’t talk much, but he has no fractures”said this woman, after being able to see her father “for five minutes” to the hospital where he is after being repatriated Thursday to Baku, with 13 other injured Azerbaijanis.
