38 passengers have been killed on Wednesday after Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 crashed because it tried to make an emergency touchdown close to the town of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
ADVERTISEMENTAzerbaijani authorities sources have solely confirmed to Euronews on Thursday {that a} Russian surface-to-air missile prompted the Azerbaijan Airlines airplane crash in Aktau on Wednesday.
According to the sources, the missile was fired at Flight 8432 throughout drone air exercise above Grozny, and the shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew because it exploded subsequent to the plane mid-flight.
Government sources have informed Euronews that the broken plane was not allowed to land at any Russian airports regardless of the pilots’ requests for an emergency touchdown, and it was ordered to fly throughout the Caspian Sea in direction of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
According to knowledge, the airplane’s GPS navigation methods have been jammed all through the flight path above the ocean.
The missile was fired from a Pantsir-S air defence system, Baku-based worldwide outlet AnewZ reported, citing Azerbaijani authorities sources.
According to Russian sources, on the time the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was passing over the territory of Chechnya, Russian air defence forces have been actively making an attempt to shoot down Ukrainian UAVs.
The head of the Security Council of the Chechen Republic, Khamzat Kadyrov, confirmed {that a} drone assault on Grozny occurred on Wednesday morning, noting that there have been no casualties or injury.
If this preliminary knowledge is confirmed, this may be the second time in a decade that Russian forces have destroyed a business plane after the MH17 crash in Ukraine. This time, Russia’s personal residents, in addition to these from neighbouring international locations, are among the many casualties.
The crash additionally evokes an earlier incident from November 2018, when an Air Astana Embraer 190 misplaced its hydraulics over Portugal however, with the assistance of the Portuguese Air Force, landed safely.
Further investigation into Wednesday’s crash is anticipated to unveil the circumstances surrounding the missile’s firing, the non-authorisation for touchdown at a close-by airport in Russia, and the instruction to cross the ocean with a broken airplane.
Our journalists are engaged on this story and can replace it as quickly as extra info turns into accessible.
