ABS-CBN NEWS | Published December 27, 2024
Social media footage shared on Wednesday (December 25) showed holes visible in the wreckage of the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan killing at least 38.
Four sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters on Thursday (December 26) the aircraft was downed by a Russian air defense system.
Reuters was able to confirm the location and that the wreckage matches the Azerbaijani Airlines plane that crashed on Wednesday (December 25) by the color design of the plane and the positioning of the wreckage which matched corroborating footage from the scene of the crash.
One of the Azerbaijani sources familiar with the Azerbaijani investigation into the crash told Reuters that preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system, and its communications were paralyzed by electronic warfare systems on the approach into Grozny.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 came down near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of Russia in which Moscow has used air defense systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months.
The Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger jet had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan’s Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region.
It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea after what Russia’s aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
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SOURCE: www.abs-cbc.com
RELATED:: Russia warns against ‘hypotheses’ after Azerbaijan Airlines crash
Emergency crews at scene of Kazakhstan plane crash
BBC NEWS | Published December 26, 2024
The Russian government has cautioned against promoting “hypotheses” about the cause of the crash of a Russia-bound passenger plane that killed 38 people in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
Footage of the wrecked fuselage appeared to indicate shrapnel damage and some aviation experts suggested the Azerbaijan Airlines plane may have been been hit by air defence systems over the Russian republic of Chechnya.
Before it went down near the Kazakh city of Aktau, the plane was diverted across the Caspian Sea, from its destination in Chechnya to western Kazakhstan.
Twenty nine of the 67 people on board survived. Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning on Thursday for the victims of the crash.
“This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people,” President Ilham Aliyev said on Thursday.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses before the investigation’s conclusions. We, of course, will not do this, and no-one should do this. We need to wait until the investigation is completed.”
The Embraer 190 aircraft took off from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday morning. It was due to fly to Grozny in Chechnya but it was diverted because of fog, the airline said.
A surviving passenger told Russian TV he believed the pilot had tried twice to land in dense fog over Grozny before “the third time, something exploded… some of the aircraft skin had blown out”.
The plane was redirected to Aktau airport, some 450km (280 miles) to the east. Footage shows the aircraft heading towards the ground at high speed 3km (1.9 miles) short of the runway, before bursting into flames as it lands.
Kazakh authorities have recovered the flight data recorder and an investigation in under way. Shortly after the crash, reports from Russian state-controlled TV said the most likely cause was a strike from a flock of birds.
But that kind of collision typically results in the plane gliding towards in the nearest airfield, aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told Reuters news agency. “You can lose control of the plane, but you don’t fly wildly off course as a consequence,” he said.
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SOURCE: www.bbc.com
RELATED: Dozens Dead in Airliner Crash ‘Likely’ Caused by Russian Air Defenses
Ukraine and aviation experts rejected other explanations for an Azerbaijan Airlines crash that killed at least 38 people
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed near the city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan. © azamat sarsenbayev/Shutterstock
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL | Published December 26, 2024
At least 38 people were killed when a passenger jet headed for Russia crashed in Kazakhstan in an incident that Ukraine officials and aviation experts said was likely caused by Russian antiaircraft fire.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was flying from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia and diverted course over an area where Moscow’s air defenses have battled Ukrainian drones in recent weeks. The flight—carrying 62 passengers and five crew members—crashed near the coastal city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan after turning around and flying east over the Caspian Sea. As many as 29 passengers survived.
Citing assessments of footage of the crash, the damage to the aircraft, and recent military activity, aviation-security firm, Osprey Flight Solutions, said in an alert to airlines that the flight “was likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system.”
“Video of the wreckage and the circumstances around the airspace security environment in southwest Russia indicates the possibility the aircraft was hit by some form of antiaircraft fire,” said Matt Borie, chief intelligence officer at Osprey said in an interview.
A Ukrainian national security official, Andriy Kovalenko, said in an X post that the plane “was shot down by a Russian air-defense system,” citing visible damage to the plane.
“Russia should have closed the airspace over Grozny but failed to do so,” Kovalenko said. “The plane was damaged by the Russians and was sent to Kazakhstan instead of being urgently landed in Grozny to save lives.”
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SOURCE: www.wsj.com
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