Aviation consultants stated Thursday that Russian air protection hearth was possible accountable for the Azerbaijani airplane crash the day earlier than that killed 38 individuals and left all 29 survivors injured.
Azerbaijan Airways’ Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian metropolis of Grozny within the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for causes nonetheless unclear and crashed whereas attempting to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan after flying east throughout the Caspian Sea.
The airplane went down about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from Aktau. Cellphone footage circulating on-line appeared to point out the plane making a steep descent earlier than crashing into the bottom and exploding in a fireball.
Different footage confirmed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the remainder of the plane mendacity the other way up on the grass.
Azerbaijan mourned the crash victims with nationwide flags at half-staff throughout on Thursday. Site visitors stopped at midday, and sirens sounded from ships and trains because it noticed a nationwide second of silence.
Talking at a information convention Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that it was too quickly to invest on the explanations behind the crash, however stated that the climate had pressured the airplane to alter from its deliberate course.
“The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he stated.
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, stated that preliminary info indicated the pilots diverted to Aktau after a hen strike led to an emergency on board.
Authorities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia have been tight-lipped a couple of potential reason for the crash however a lawmaker in Azerbaijan blamed Moscow. Rasim Musabekov advised the Azerbaijani information company Turan that the airplane was fired on whereas within the skies over Grozny and urged Russia to supply an official apology.
“Those who did this must face criminal charges,” Musabekov was quoted by Turan as saying, including that compensations to the victims must also be paid. “If it doesn’t happen, relations will be affected.”
Because the official crash investigation began, some consultants identified that holes seen within the airplane’s tail part may point out that it may have come below hearth from Russian air protection programs warding off a Ukrainian drone assault.
Ukrainian drones had beforehand attacked Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and different areas within the nation’s North Caucasus. An official in Chechnya stated one other drone assault on the area was fended off on Wednesday, though federal authorities didn’t report it.
Mark Zee of OPSGroup, which displays the world’s airspace and airports for dangers, stated that the evaluation of the pictures of fragments of the crashed airplane point out that it was virtually definitely hit by a surface-to-air missile, or SAM.
“Much more to investigate, but at high level we’d put the probability of it being a SAM attack on the aircraft at being well into the 90-99% bracket,” he stated.
ISSA TAZHENBAYEV through Getty Pictures
Osprey Flight Options, an aviation safety agency primarily based in the UK, warned its purchasers that the “Azerbaijan Airlines flight was likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system.” Osprey offers evaluation for carriers nonetheless flying into Russia after Western airways halted their flights in the course of the battle.
Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson stated that the corporate had issued greater than 200 alerts concerning drone assaults and air protection programs in Russia in the course of the battle.
“This incident is a stark reminder of why we do what we do,” Nicholson posted on-line. “It is painful to know that despite our efforts, lives were lost in a way that could have been avoided.”
Yan Matveyev, an impartial Russian army skilled, famous that photographs of the crashed airplane’s tail reveal the harm appropriate with shrapnel from a small surface-to-air missiles, such because the Pantsyr-S1 air protection system.
“It looks like the tail section of the plane was damaged by some missile fragments,” he stated.
Matveyev added that it stays unclear why the pilots determined to fly lots of of miles east throughout the Caspian Sea as a substitute of attempting to land at a better airport in Russia after the airplane was hit.
“Perhaps some of the plane’s systems kept working for some time and the crew believed that they could make it and land normally,” Matveyev stated, including that the crew may even have confronted restrictions on touchdown at one other venue in Russia.
Caliber, an Azerbaijani information web site with good authorities connections, additionally claimed that the airliner was fired upon by a Russian Pantsyr-S air protection system because it was approaching Grozny. It questioned why Russian authorities failed to shut the airport regardless of the obvious drone raid within the space. Khamzat Kadyrov, head of Chechnya’s Safety Council, stated that air defenses downed drones attacking the area on Wednesday.
Caliber additionally questioned why Russian authorities didn’t enable the airplane to make an emergency touchdown in Grozny or different Russian airports close by after it was hit.
Requested concerning the claims that the airplane had been fired upon by air protection belongings, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov advised reporters that “it would be wrong to make hypotheses before investigators make their verdict.”
Kazakhstan’s parliamentary speaker, Maulen Ashimbayev, additionally warned towards speeding to conclusions primarily based on photos of the airplane’s fragments, describing the allegations of air protection hearth as unfounded and unethical.
We Want Your Assist
Already contributed? Log in to cover these messages.
In keeping with Kazakh officers, these aboard the airplane included 42 Azerbaijani residents, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry on Thursday flew 9 Russian survivors to Moscow for therapy.
Related Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.
