(Moscow) The Kremlin was walled in silence on Saturday in the face of growing suspicions that a Russian anti-aircraft fire may have caused the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner on Wednesday, killing 38 people.
Posted at 7:42 a.m.
In the wake of the disaster, several airlines announced that they would suspend their flights to Russian cities.
The White House assured Friday that it had “preliminary indications which suggest the possibility that this plane was shot down by Russian air defense systems”, echoing Western experts who believe that the images showing a fuselage riddled with holes left think of such a shot.
Despite this cluster of suspicions, the Kremlin deemed it “inappropriate” on Saturday to comment on the comments of the American presidency, the investigation by the Azerbaijani and Kazakh authorities being ongoing.
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 .
IMAGE TAKEN FROM VIDEO PROVIDED BY MANGYSTAU REGIONAL ADMINISTRATION, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
The wreckage of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 on the ground near Aktau Airport, Kazakhstan, December 25, 2024.
“An explosion”
Russian authorities cited a Ukrainian drone attack on Grozny, capital of Chechnya, on the day of the disaster, as well as thick fog. But they did not explain why the plane was not allowed to land at another Russian airport and had to cross the Caspian Sea.
In all, 38 of the 67 people on board the plane were killed when the plane crashed and caught fire.
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.
He called on Russia to apologize, “punish the guilty and promise that such a thing would not happen again”, accusing Moscow of having redirected the plane after the incident towards Kazakhstan, on the other side of the Caspian Sea.
PHOTO AZIZ KARIMOV, REUTERS
Mourners carry the body of Mahammadali Eganov, 13, who died in the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer jetliner near the Kazakh city of Aktau on December 28 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
A passenger who survived the crash also spoke of an explosion outside the plane.
“There was an explosion. That’s for sure. Everyone heard it,” confirmed one of the Russian survivors, of Tajik origin, Soubkhonkoul Rakhimov, to 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 shrapnel.”
Seeing Russia’s “obvious” responsibility, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a “thorough investigation to establish the truth”.
Since the disaster, several companies have indicated that they are suspending flights to Russia, without providing precise explanations.
Canceled flights
In Turkmenistan, another country bordering the Caspian, the company Turkmenistan Airlines announced on Saturday that “regular Ashkhabad-Moscow-Ashkhabad flights are canceled from December 30, 2024 to January 31, 2025”.
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 route 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”.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Saturday praised the work of rescuers at the crash site, with 29 people surviving.
“We were able to avoid much more serious consequences and save many lives,” he said, according to the Kazakh presidency.
