The crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines airliner, which killed 38 people in Kazakhstan on Wednesday December 25, was due to “external, physical and technical interference”, according to the preliminary results of the investigation cited, Friday December 27 , by this airline. “The preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190” indicate “external, physical and technical interference,” Azerbaijan Airlines said on Telegram, in an updated version of its announcement of the suspensions of flights to several Russian cities.
On Thursday, an American official estimated that the first information emerging from the crash pointed to the responsibility of a Russian air defense system. Azerbaijani authorities believe a Russian missile was the cause of the crash. “An investigation is underway to establish whether it was a Russian air defense strike or another cause,” Azerbaijani MP Rassim Moussabekov told AFP, while emphasizing that “we see in the photos and images videos the plane’s fuselage with holes that are normally caused by air defense 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.
Ukrainian drones attack Grozny, Russian civil aviation agency says
Russia for its part warned Thursday against the “hypotheses” circulating about the cause of the crash. The Russian civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia announced on Friday that Ukrainian drones attacked Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, on the day of the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which twice attempted to landing there without success.
According to the boss of Rosaviatsia, Dmitri Yadrov, the situation was then “very difficult” at Grozny airport, where there was also “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, Dmitri Yadrov said.
The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 aircraft with 67 people on board was operating a flight between Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, and Grozny on Wednesday. It crashed and caught fire in still unclear circumstances near Aktau, a port on the Caspian Sea located in western Kazakhstan and far from its destination, a tragedy which left 38 dead, according to the authorities of this Central Asian country.
Hypothesis of a Russian missile
The presence of Ukrainian drones in this area of Russian airspace reinforces the hypothesis, mentioned by numerous media, of a missile fired by Russian anti-aircraft defense to explain the crash. Dmitri Yadrov assured that Russia intended to “fully cooperate in the investigation into this tragedy” with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics on good terms with Moscow.
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 Grozny airport, before managing to fly to Kazakhstan where he crashed.
Azerbaijan Airlines initially claimed that the plane had hit a flock of birds (version taken up by Rosaviatsia), before withdrawing this information. The Kazakh Ministry of Transport, for its part, mentioned on Thursday the “explosion of a balloon” on board.