Azerbaijan on Thursday noticed a nationwide day of mourning for the victims of the air crash that killed 38 folks and left all 29 survivors injured as hypothesis mounted a few doable explanation for the crash that remained unknown.
Los restos del avión Embraer 190 de Azerbaijan Airlines yacen en el suelo cerca del aeropuerto de Aktau, Kazajstán, miércoles 25 de diciembre de 2024. (AP foto/Azamat Sarsenbayev)
Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian metropolis of Grozny within the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for causes but unclear and crashed whereas attempting to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan after flying east throughout the Caspian Sea.
The airplane went down about 3 kilometers (round 2 miles) from Aktau. Cellphone footage circulating on-line appeared to indicate the plane making a steep descent earlier than smashing into the bottom in a fireball. Other footage confirmed a part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the remainder of the plane mendacity upside within the grass.
The wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lays on the bottom close to the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Azamat Sarsenbayev)
In this photograph taken from a video launched by the administration of Mangystau area, the wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the bottom close to the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (The Administration of Mangystau Region by way of AP)
On Thursday, nationwide flags had been lowered throughout Azerbaijan, visitors throughout the nation stopped at midday, and indicators had been sounded from ships and trains because the nation noticed a nationwide second of silence.
Speaking at a information convention Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that it was too quickly to invest on the explanations behind the crash, however stated that the climate had compelled the airplane to vary from its deliberate course.
“The data supplied to me is that the airplane modified its course between Baku and Grozny on account of worsening climate situations and headed to Aktau airport, the place it crashed upon touchdown,” he stated.
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, stated that preliminary data indicated that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a chook strike led to an emergency on board.
According to Kazakh officers, these aboard the airplane included 42 Azerbaijani residents, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals.
As the official crash investigation began, theories abounded a few doable trigger, with some commentators alleging that holes seen within the airplane’s tail part presumably point out that it may have come underneath hearth from Russian air protection techniques warding off a Ukrainian drone assault.
Ukrainian drones had beforehand attacked Grozny, the provincial capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and different areas within the nation’s North Caucasus. Some Russian media claimed that one other drone assault on Chechnya occurred on Wednesday, though it wasn’t formally confirmed.
Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation safety agency primarily based within the United Kingdom, warned its shoppers that the “Azerbaijan Airlines flight was probably shot down by a Russian army air-defense system.” Osprey offers evaluation for carriers nonetheless flying into Russia after Western airways halted their flights through the warfare.
In this picture launched by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service, rescuers carry a wounded passenger close to the Kazakhstani metropolis of Aktau, Thursday, Dec. 26 , 2024, after a airplane of Azerbaijani Airline crashed. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service by way of AP)
In this picture launched by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service, rescuers put together to hold a wounded passenger close to the Kazakhstani metropolis of Aktau, Thursday, Dec. 26 , 2024, after a airplane of Azerbaijani Airline crashed. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service by way of AP)
Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson stated that the corporate had issued greater than 200 alerts concerning drone assaults and air protection techniques in Russia through the warfare.
“This incident is a stark reminder of why we do what we do,” Nicholson wrote on-line. “It is painful to know that regardless of our efforts, lives had been misplaced in a manner that would have been prevented.”
Asked in regards to the claims that the airplane had been fired upon by air protection property, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed reporters that “it might be fallacious to make hypotheses earlier than investigators make their verdict.”
Officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have equally prevented touch upon a doable explanation for the crash, saying will probably be as much as investigators to find out it.
___
Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Aida Sultanova in London, contributed to this report.
