Azerbaijan’s airline announced on Friday that it would suspend flights to several Russian airports, citing possible aviation safety risks following the crash of one of its planes, which many experts attributed to Russian air defense fire.
Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons that remain unclear and crashed while attempting to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after flying east across the Caspian Sea . The crash killed 38 people and injured all 29 survivors.
Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement that it would suspend flights to more Russian cities “after receiving the preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft on flight J2-8243 from Baku to Grozny, which was caused by physical and technical malfunctions.” and consider potential risks to aviation safety.”
The airline did not provide any information about what it meant by “physical and technical impairment”.
Authorities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia remained tight-lipped about a possible cause of the crash pending an official investigation, but an Azerbaijani lawmaker blamed Moscow. Rasim Musabekov told Azerbaijan’s Turan news agency on Thursday that the plane was shot at in the skies over Grozny and called on Russia to formally apologize.
As Azerbaijan mourns 38 people killed aboard a plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, experts point to signs that a missile, possibly one from Russia, was responsible.
Asked about Musabekov’s statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, saying it was up to investigators to determine the cause of the crash.
“The air incident is being investigated and we do not believe that we have the right to make assessments until the conclusions are available as a result of the investigation,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
Investigators from Azerbaijan are working as part of the investigation into the crash in Grozny, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.
Experts believe that the plane was probably hit by Russian defense systems
As the official crash investigation began, some aviation experts pointed out that holes in the plane’s tail area suggested it may have come under fire from Russian air defense systems that were repelling a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukrainian drones had previously attacked Grozny, the capital of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, and other regions in the country’s North Caucasus. An official in Chechnya said another drone attack on the region was repelled on Wednesday, although federal authorities did not report it.
FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the plane was subject to “severe GPS interference” that affected flight tracking data. Russia has extensively used sophisticated jamming devices to deter drone attacks.
The airline is suspending flights to other Russian cities
After suspending flights from Baku to Grozy and Makhachkala on Wednesday, Azerbaijan Airlines also suspended flights to Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa and Samara on Friday.
The company will continue to offer flights to six other Russian cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan. These cities have also been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks in the past.
Kazakh airline Qazaq Air also announced on Friday that it would suspend its flights from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains for a month.
The day before, Israel’s El Al had suspended its flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow, citing “developments in Russian airspace.” The airline said it would reassess the situation next week to decide whether to resume flights.
