Azerbaijan marked a nationwide day of mourning on Thursday for the victims of the plane crash that killed 38 people and injured all 29 survivors, as speculation grew about a possible cause of the disaster. Some experts said the plane was damaged by Russian anti-aircraft fire.
The Embraer 190 from Azerbaijan Airlines was traveling from there Azerbaijan On Wednesday, the flight was flying from the capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus when it was diverted for reasons that remain unclear and crashed while attempting to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after flying east over the Caspian Sea.
The plane crashed about three kilometers (about 2 miles) from Aktau. Cell phone footage shared online appeared to show the plane making a steep descent before hitting the ground in a fireball. Other footage showed part of the fuselage being torn away from the wings and the rest of the plane lying upside down in the grass.
When the official investigation into the crash began, there were numerous theories about a possible cause. Some experts claimed that holes in the tail section of the plane may indicate that it could have been fired upon by Russian air defense systems that repelled a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukrainian drones had previously attacked Grozny, the provincial 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.
National flags were lowered across Azerbaijan on Thursday, traffic across the country was stopped at midday and signals from ships and trains sounded as the country observed a nationwide minute of silence.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said it was too early to speculate about the reasons for the crash, but said weather had forced the plane to deviate from its planned course.
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“The information provided to me says that due to deteriorating weather conditions, the plane changed course between Baku and Grozny and flew to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he said.
Russia’s civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia said preliminary information suggested the pilots were diverted to Aktau after a bird strike led to an emergency on board.
According to Kazakh officials, there were 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyz nationals on board the plane. The Russian Emergencies Ministry flew nine Russian survivors to Moscow for treatment on Thursday.
Mark Zee of OPSGroup, which monitors the world’s airspace and airports for risks, said analysis of images of fragments of the crashed plane suggested it was almost certainly hit by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). .
“There is a lot more to investigate, but at a high level we would estimate the likelihood of this being a SAM attack on the aircraft to be well within 90-99%,” he said.
Osprey Flight Solutions, a UK-based aviation security company, warned its customers that “the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was likely shot down by a Russian military air defense system.” Osprey provides analysis for airlines still flying to Russia after Western airlines suspended flights during the war.
Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson said the company issued more than 200 warnings 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 painful to know that despite our efforts, lives were lost that could have been avoided.”
Caliber, an Azerbaijani news website, claimed that the plane was fired upon by a Russian Pantsyr-S air defense system while approaching Grozny. It questioned why Russian authorities did not close the airport despite the apparent drone strike in the area. Khamzat Kadyrov, head of Chechnya’s Security Council, said air defenses shot down drones that attacked the region on Wednesday.
Caliber also questioned why Russian authorities did not allow the plane to make an emergency landing at Grozny or other nearby Russian airports after the impact.
Asked about claims that the plane was fired upon by air defense forces, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “It would be wrong to put forward hypotheses before investigators make their verdict.”
Kazakh Parliament Speaker Maulen Ashimbayev also warned against drawing hasty conclusions based on images of the aircraft fragments, calling the allegations of anti-aircraft fire unfounded and “unethical.”
Other officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan also avoided commenting on a possible cause of the crash, saying it was up to investigators to determine.
&Copy 2024 The Canadian Press
