Azerbaijan Media: Baku assumes Russian hit on plane
According to media reports, the government in Baku attributes the crash of the damaged Azerbaijani plane in Kazakhstan to fire from an anti-aircraft missile over Russia. The Turkish news agency Anadolu reported that this had been confirmed by high-ranking state representatives in Azerbaijan. However, no names were mentioned.
26.12.2024, 17:00
SDA
In Baku, the Internet portal caliber.az also referred to unnamed government sources. According to these sources, the plane was hit by a Panzir 1 anti-aircraft missile on Wednesday as it approached the Russian city of Grozny. Around this time, Ukrainian drones were being fought in the air in several regions of the Russian North Caucasus.
According to caliber.az, the pilots requested an emergency landing at the nearest Russian airports in Mineralnye Vody or Makhachkala. This was not approved, so the crew steered the damaged plane across the Caspian Sea to Aktau in Kazakhstan.
During an attempt to land there, the Embraer 190 aircraft crashed. 38 people on board were killed, there were 29 survivors. Photos of the tail section of the unfortunate aircraft show damage that resembles the impact holes of shrapnel from anti-aircraft weapons. The Embraer's two flight recorders were found on Thursday, according to Kazakh sources.
