Azerbaijan Investigation after passenger jet crash in Kazakhstan
Following the crash of a passenger plane in Kazakhstan, investigations into the cause of the accident have begun. In the evening, rescue teams recovered the flight recorders, also known as the black box, from the wreckage of the plane at the scene of the accident near Aktau on the coast of the Caspian Sea.
26.12.2024, 02:08
SDA
According to official figures, 38 people died in the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan, while 29 passengers survived, some of them seriously injured. It is completely unclear why the plane crashed.
There were several unconfirmed speculations about the causes, ranging from a bird strike to Russian air defense fire. Kazakhstan's deputy head of government Qanat Aldabergenuly Bosymbayev has since called for no hasty conclusions to be drawn. The results of the investigation would "naturally" be published once the work had been completed.
The plane took off from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday morning with 67 passengers - including five crew members. It was scheduled to fly to Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. For reasons still unknown, the plane took a course towards the Caspian Sea shortly before landing. There, according to the Kazakh agency Tengrinews, the pilot signaled an emergency situation - known in pilot circles as "emergency squawk 7700".
Several videos show the moment before the crash
Videos show how the plane crashed from a low altitude on the coast of the Caspian Sea without reaching the nearby airport in the city of Aktau. According to eyewitnesses, the plane flew two wide circles before hitting the ground while attempting a third circle.
Tengrinews published a video from the cabin of the ill-fated plane showing oxygen masks falling off, as well as excited shouts from passengers and a recording of a bearded man repeatedly shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). It was not clear exactly when the video was recorded.
Why did the plane not fly to the destination airport?
According to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the plane was unable to land in Grozny due to poor weather conditions and therefore headed for an alternative airport. Many videos of the accident were circulating on social networks, he said. "But the reasons for the crash are still unknown to us." There are various theories. "The matter must be thoroughly clarified," he said, according to the state news agency Azertag.
In initial statements, Azerbaijan Airlines attributed the suspected damage to the aircraft to a possible collision with a flock of birds. Aviation expert Heinrich Grossbongardt, however, considers fog or a flock of birds as the unlikely cause of the crash. "The realistic scenario is an external impact," he told ARD's Tagesschau. "The plane was extremely badly damaged and uncontrollable. This is not something that is caused by a flock of birds, for example, where the engines fail but the plane remains controllable."
Is there a link to the war in Ukraine?
Russian military bloggers, on the other hand, did not rule out another explanation: The plane could have strayed over the North Caucasus into zones where Ukrainian drones were being fought on Wednesday morning. However, there was no official statement on this from the Russian Ministry of Defense, which usually reports the combat of incoming drones.
In the Ukrainian capital Kiev, the head of the Center for Combating Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, claimed that the aircraft had been shot at and damaged by Russian air defense on its way to Grozny. He did not provide any proof for his claims.
It was completely unclear whether drones or anti-drone missiles were involved in the incident at all. Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian war of aggression for almost three years and has repeatedly targeted military targets in the neighboring country, primarily with drones. Ukrainian drones are now also reaching the Caucasus.
The internet aircraft tracker Flightradar24 analyzed that the damaged aircraft had flown over the Caspian Sea for the last 74 minutes with limited controllability.
Passengers survived in the rear of the plane
On impact, the short- and medium-haul jet partially burst into flames, as videos on social networks showed. According to photos, the tail was less damaged. According to media reports, surviving passengers were rescued from this part of the wreckage. The nose and middle section, on the other hand, were destroyed.
The regional administration of Mangistau published a list of the injured, which also included the names of two children. An eleven-year-old girl stated that she lived in Germany. She did not know her nationality. According to the list, 14 survivors were citizens of Azerbaijan, 10 of Russia and 2 of Kyrgyzstan.
In the evening, the Kazakh agency Tengrinews published a complete passenger list, which also lists the nationality of almost all of the passengers. One woman's personal details were missing and an eleven-year-old girl was listed with German citizenship.
Azerbaijan Airlines suspended its flights to the Russian cities of Grozny and Makhachkala in the North Caucasus.
