Azerbaijan Russia laments difficult situation before plane crash
The passenger plane from Azerbaijan that crashed in Kazakhstan was unable to land at its destination in Grozny due to Ukrainian drone attacks, according to Moscow.
27.12.2024, 16:40
27.12.2024, 16:45
SDA
However, neither the Kremlin nor the Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya commented on whether parts of an exploded anti-aircraft missile could have hit the plane carrying 67 people and caused it to crash.
The airline Azerbaijan Airlines announced that the plane crashed "due to physical and technical external factors" based on preliminary investigation results.
Due to potential safety risks, flights to ten Russian cities from Baku have been suspended in coordination with the Azerbaijani aviation authority. The suspension of flight operations will remain in force until the crash has been fully investigated, the company added.
Moscow: Ukrainian drone attacks on the day of the crash
"The situation on that day and during those hours in the Grozny airport area was very complicated," said the head of the Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya, Dmitry Yadrov. "Ukrainian combat drones were carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the Grozny and Vladikavkaz regions at that time."
Accordingly, no take-offs and landings were permitted in Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, due to the danger posed by the drones. According to Yadrov, all pilots had to leave the airspace during the alert period. It was the first time that an official Russian body had established a temporal connection between a drone alert and the crash. On the Russian side, Rosaviatsiya is leading the investigation.
Yadrov did not comment on whether the plane was possibly damaged by a Ukrainian drone or the use of a Russian anti-aircraft missile and then crashed. He also said that there was dense fog in Grozny at the time. The pilot of the plane had made two attempts to land - without success. He then turned towards Kazakhstan.
Expert: Hardly any doubt that the plane was shot down
According to one expert, the available images and data strongly suggest that the plane was shot down by air defense. Obviously, projectiles in the form of cube-shaped shrapnel perforated the aircraft, said Colonel Markus Reisner, Ukraine expert of the Austrian Armed Forces, on ORF radio.
It was probably not a direct hit, but a close-range hit, Reisner said. The target itself is not hit, but the projectile explodes in the immediate vicinity. Reisner assumed it was an unintentional hit, not a targeted launch.
During the landing attempt, the Azerbaijani Embraer 190 aircraft crashed on Wednesday near the Kazakh city of Aktau on the coast of the Caspian Sea. 38 people on board were killed and there were 29 survivors. Photos of the tail section of the crashed plane show damage that resembles the impact holes of shrapnel from anti-aircraft weapons.
Kiev blames Moscow for plane crash
Ukraine blames Russia for the crash. Moscow must be held responsible for the "shooting down" of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, explained the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, on the Telegram platform.
Russia had previously warned against speculation and called for the results of the investigation into the cause of the crash to be awaited.
Several media outlets had reported, citing unnamed Azerbaijani government sources, that the plane had crashed due to the use of a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
Ukraine has repeatedly relied on drone attacks in its defense against Russian aggression. Most recently, there were several such attacks in the North Caucasus, which is why Russia deployed its air defenses. Time and again, operations at Russian airports are temporarily suspended in the wake of such Ukrainian attacks.
Flights to many Russian destinations suspended
Azerbaijan has suspended its flights to ten Russian cities. From this Saturday, there will be no more flights from Baku to Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara, Mineralnye Vody, Grozny, Makhachkala, Vladikavkaz, Nizhny Novgorod and Saratov, the airline Azerbaijan Airlines announced. A plane returned to Baku on Friday because the airspace at the Russian destination airport Mineralnye Vody in the North Caucasus was closed.
In Kazakhstan, the airline Qazaq Air suspended flights from the capital Astana to the Russian metropolis of Yekaterinburg in the Urals for a month for security reasons. Flights to Omsk and Novosibirsk in Siberia will continue, however.
Previously, the Russian aviation authority had again temporarily banned take-offs and landings at some airports in the country for safety reasons. No details were given.
According to the statement, Azerbaijan Airlines intends to continue flying to the airports in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Astrakhan, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk.
