Plane crash probe in Kazakhstan underway as speculation mounts about cause
Azerbaijan marks National Day of Mourning for Air Crash Victims on Thursday 38 people died and 29 survivors were injured. As speculation mounts about the possible causes of the disaster.
On Wednesday, an Embraer 190 of Azerbaijan Airlines was en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, a city in the North Caucasus region of Russia. For unknown reasons, it diverted and flew east over the Caspian Sea before crashing while trying to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan. .
The plane went down about 2 miles from Aktau. Cellphone video circulating online appeared to show the plane descending sharply before crashing into the ground in a fireball. Other footage showed part of the fuselage detaching from the wing and the rest of the plane lying on the grass.
Flags were lowered across Azerbaijan on Thursday, traffic across the country came to a halt at noon, ships and trains signaled a national moment of silence.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told a news conference on Wednesday that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash, but said weather had forced the plane to change its planned route.
“The information I received is that due to worsening weather conditions, the plane changed its route between Baku and Grozny and flew to Aktau Airport, but crashed on landing,” he said.
Issa Tarebayev/AFP/Getty Images
Russia’s civil aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, said preliminary information showed that the pilot diverted to Aktau after a bird strike caused an emergency on board.
As the official crash investigation begins, theories abound as to the possible cause, with some commentators claiming holes in the plane’s tail could indicate it could have been attacked by a Russian air defense system designed to fend off attacks by Ukrainian drones.
Ukrainian drones have previously struck Grozny, the provincial capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, as well as other areas in the country’s North Caucasus region. Some Russian media claimed that Chechnya was hit by drones again on Wednesday, but this has not been officially confirmed.
U.K.-based aviation security company Osprey Flight Solutions warned its customers that “it is very likely that the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was shot down by a Russian military air defense system.” Osprey is still flying to Russia after Western airlines stopped flying in 2017 The company provided the analysis. war in ukraine.
Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson said the company had issued more than 200 alerts about drone strikes and air defense systems in Russia during the war.
“This incident is a stark reminder of why we do what we do,” Nicholson wrote online. “It is distressing that, despite our efforts, we were treated in a way that could have been avoided.” Ways to lose your life.”
Agence France-Presse quoted Russian military expert Yuri Podolyanka as saying that the holes found in the plane wreckage were similar to those left by “anti-aircraft missile systems.” “Everything points to it,” he wrote.
Kamila Jumayeva/AFP via Getty Images
According to Agence France-Presse, Gerard Legauffre, a former expert at France’s BEA air crash investigation agency, also said that there appeared to be “a large amount of shrapnel” damage in the wreckage.
He described it as “reminiscent” of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which Shot down by Russian-backed rebels with surface-to-air missile Over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
But when asked about claims that the plane was fired upon by anti-aircraft assets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “it would be wrong to make assumptions before investigators have made a ruling.”
Kazakhstan’s parliament speaker Maurun Ashimbayev also warned against jumping to conclusions based on images of plane debris, calling accusations of anti-aircraft fire baseless and “unethical.”
Other officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan similarly avoided commenting on the possible cause of the crash, saying it would be determined by investigators.
