The crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines airliner, which killed 38 people on Wednesday, was due to “external interference”, according to the preliminary conclusions of the investigation announced on Friday, with experts and Western media favoring the runway. a Russian anti-aircraft missile to explain this tragedy.
• Also read: Plane crash in Kazakhstan: no comments from the Kremlin before the end of the investigation
• Also read: Plane crash in Kazakhstan: was the plane shot down by Russian air defense?
Russia has confirmed that Grozny, the capital of Chechnya where the aircraft attempted to land twice without success before being redirected towards Kazakhstan, was the target of an attack on the day of the tragedy. Ukrainian drones in a context of thick fog.
“The preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190” indicate “external, physical and technical interference,” Azerbaijan Airlines said on Telegram. The company also announces the suspension of flights to several Russian cities.
AFP
The airline explained this suspension by “risks to flight safety”, without providing further details. Contacted by AFP, the Azerbaijani government did not respond to questions about the possible causes of the crash.
“An investigation is underway to establish whether it was a Russian air defense strike or another cause,” Azerbaijani MP Rassim Moussabekov told AFP, while emphasizing that “we see in the photos and images videos the plane’s fuselage with holes that are normally caused by air defense missiles.
AFP
He called on Russia to apologize, “punish the guilty and promise that such a thing will not happen again”, accusing Moscow of having redirected the plane after the incident towards Kazakhstan, on the other side of the Caspian Sea.
Drones and fog
The aircraft, an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 with 67 people on board, was flying on Wednesday between Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, and Grozny, capital of the Russian Caucasian republic of Chechnya.
It crashed and caught fire in still unclear circumstances near Aktau, a port on the Caspian Sea located in western Kazakhstan and far from its destination, killing 38 people, according to the authorities of this country. Central Asia.
AFP
While experts and Western media point to the hypothesis of a crash due to a Russian anti-aircraft missile fire, the Kremlin on Friday refused any comment “before the conclusions of the investigation”. Russia’s aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, said the situation at Grozny airport that day was “very difficult.”
“At that time, Ukrainian military drones were carrying out terrorist attacks against civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” Rosaviatsia boss Dmitry Yadrov said on Telegram.
AFP
He also reported “thick fog” which prevented all visibility “at an altitude of 500 meters”. “The captain made two attempts to land in Grozny, which failed. Other airports are proposed to him. He decides to go to Aktau airport in Kazakhstan, Mr. Yadrov said.
Grozny has been attacked by Ukrainian drones several times since Russia’s assault on Ukraine began in 2022.
Mr. Yadrov assured that Russia intended to “fully cooperate in the investigation into this tragedy” with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics on good terms with Moscow.
AFP
The head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermak, for his part directly accused Moscow, ensuring that Russia must be “held responsible for having shot down the Azerbaijan Airlines plane”.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev promised Friday in a call with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev that “the causes of the accident will be examined in detail.”
«Explosion»
None of the countries involved have yet publicly confirmed the missile hypothesis, fueled by images of impacts on the wreckage of the aircraft, and according to which the aircraft was fired upon during its approach to Grozny airport, before managing to fly to Kazakhstan where he crashed.
Azerbaijan Airlines initially claimed that the plane had hit a flock of birds, before withdrawing this information.
AFP
This version was also mentioned on Wednesday by Rosaviatsia. The Kazakh Ministry of Transport mentioned on Thursday the “explosion of a balloon” on board.
“There was an explosion. That’s for sure. Everyone heard it,” confirmed one of the Russian survivors, of Tajik origin, Soubkhonkoul Rakhimov, to the Russian television channel RT. But “I wouldn’t say it was inside the plane,” he added, specifying that his life jacket had been “pierced by a shrapnel.”
AFP
On board the plane were 37 Azerbaijanis, six Kazakhs, three Kyrgyz and 16 Russians, as well as five crew members, according to the Kazakh Transport Ministry. Twenty-nine of them survived.
“I never thought my father could survive after such an explosion,” Konoul Assadova, daughter of Azerbaijan Airlines steward Zulfougar Assadov, one of the survivors, told AFP.
“His back hurts, he can’t speak much, but he has no fractures,” said this woman, after being able to see her father “for five minutes” in the hospital where he is after was repatriated Thursday to Baku, with 13 other injured Azerbaijanis.