Several airlines have announced they are suspending flights to Russian cities, decisions coming after experts and Washington believe the crash this week of an Azerbaijan Airlines jetliner may have been caused by a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
The national company of Turkmenistan, Turkmenistan Airlines, announced on Saturday that “regular Ashkhabad-Moscow-Ashkhabad flights are canceled from 12/30/2024 to 01/31/2025”, without providing explanations.
Flydubai, for its part, said it was canceling its flights between Dubai and the southern Russian cities of Mineralnye Vody and Sochi, scheduled between December 27 and January 3.
The Kazakh company Qazaq Air has suspended its flights to Yekaterinburg in the Urals until the end of January.
They follow in the footsteps of the Israeli company El Al, which indicated on Thursday that it was suspending its flights to Russia for a week due to the situation “in Russian airspace”.
On Wednesday, an Embraer 190 plane of the Azerbaijani company Azerbaijan Airlines crashed in Aktau, in western Kazakhstan, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, while the plane was supposed to connect Baku to Grozny, on the opposite bank .
Several Western experts have for several days been pointing to the hypothesis of a crash due to a Russian anti-aircraft missile fire. On Friday, Washington indicated, without further details, that it had elements suggesting such a shot.
“We have seen preliminary indications that suggest the possibility that this aircraft was shot down by Russian air defense systems,” said White House spokesman John Kirby.
The Kremlin, for its part, refuses to make any comments, saying it is awaiting the results of the investigation carried out by the Azerbaijani and Kazakh authorities. They have so far refrained from pointing the responsibility of the Russian army.
The Russian authorities, for their part, cited a Ukrainian drone attack against Grozny, capital of Chechnya, on the day of the disaster, as well as thick fog.
Azerbaijan Airlines indicated that, according to the first elements of the investigation, the crash was due to “external, physical and technical interference”.
Azerbaijani MP Rassim Mousabekov confirmed that the possibility of a “Russian anti-aircraft defense strike” was being examined, and that the images of the fuselage riddled with holes suggested such a shot.
Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board the plane were killed when the plane crashed and caught fire.
