Aviation consultants stated Thursday an Azerbaijani airliner that crashed in Kazakhstan more than likely went down after being hit by Russian air protection techniques.
Here are some issues to learn about the crash that killed 38 out of the 67 individuals on board:
How did the airplane crash?
Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian metropolis of Grozny within the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for causes that aren’t but totally clear. It crashed whereas making an attempt to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after flying east throughout the Caspian Sea.
The airplane went down close to the coast about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from Aktau. Cellphone footage circulating on-line appeared to point out the plane making a steep descent earlier than hitting the bottom and exploding in a fireball.
Rescuers rushed 29 survivors to hospitals.
How did Azerbaijan react?
Azerbaijan noticed a nationwide day of mourning on Thursday. National flags had been at half-staff, site visitors throughout the nation stopped at midday, and sirens had been sounded from ships and trains.
Speaking at a information convention on Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that the climate had compelled the airplane to vary from its deliberate course.
What do officers and consultants say a couple of doable trigger?
Kazakhstani, Azerbaijani and Russian authorities say they’re investigating the crash. Embraer instructed The Associated Press in an announcement that the corporate is “prepared to help all related authorities.”
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, stated that preliminary data indicated the pilots diverted to Aktau after a chicken strike led to an emergency on board.
While officers remained tight-lipped, an Azerbaijani lawmaker instantly pointed the finger at Russia. Rasim Musabekov instructed the Azerbaijani information company Turan that the airplane was fired upon within the skies over Grozny and urged Russia to supply an official apology.
Some aviation consultants say the holes seen within the airplane’s tail part after the crash point out that it might have come below fireplace from Russian air protection techniques warding off a Ukrainian drone assault.
Mark Zee of OPSGroup, which displays the world’s airspace and airports for dangers, stated that the evaluation of the fragments of the crashed airplane point out with a 90-99% chance that it was hit by a surface-to-air missile.
Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation safety agency based mostly within the United Kingdom, warned its shoppers that the “Azerbaijan Airlines flight was possible shot down by a Russian navy air-defense system.”
Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson stated that the corporate had issued greater than 200 alerts concerning drone assaults and air protection techniques in Russia because the full-scale warfare in Ukraine started in February 2022.
FlightRadar24 stated in a web-based put up that the plane had confronted “sturdy GPS jamming” that interfered with flight monitoring knowledge permitting to observe planes’ flight path. Russia has extensively used subtle jamming tools to fend off drone assaults.
A day later, no definitive phrase
Yan Matveyev, an unbiased Russian navy skilled, famous that the photographs of the crashed airplane’s tail present harm suitable with shrapnel from the Russian Pantsyr-S1 air protection system.
It’s unclear why the pilots determined to fly a whole bunch of miles east throughout the Caspian Sea as a substitute of making an attempt to land in Russia after the airplane was hit, he stated, including that they most likely confronted restrictions on touchdown at a more in-depth venue and will have thought that the harm was not essential.
In Azerbaijan, Caliber on-line newspaper additionally claimed that the airliner was fired upon by a Russian Pantsyr-S air protection system and likewise had its techniques affected by jamming tools because it was approaching Grozny.
The paper questioned why Russian authorities failed to shut the airport regardless of the drone assault within the space on Wednesday, and why they didn’t permit the airplane to land in Grozny or different Russian airports close by after it was hit.
Asked in regards to the claims that the airplane had been fired upon by air protection belongings, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed reporters on Thursday that “it will be incorrect to make hypotheses earlier than investigators make their verdict.”
Officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have equally averted touch upon a doable explanation for the crash, saying will probably be as much as investigators to find out it.
