“Officially, the cause of the plane crash is unknown. Rosaviatsia previously announced a “collision with birds””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“This morning, the Embraer 190 plane of the Azerbaijani airline, which was flying from Baku to Grozny, was shot down by a Russian anti-aircraft missile system. Russia should have closed the airspace over Grozny, but did not do so,” Kovalenko said.
According to him, the plane was damaged as a result of the actions of the Russian military and was sent to Kazakhstan “instead of an emergency landing in Grozny and saving people’s lives.”
Opposition Chechen telegram channels reported on a drone attack on Grozny in the morning of December 25. In particular, as the Niyso channel reported, at least four explosions rang out near the base of the 2nd Special Regiment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs named after Akhmat Kadyrov.
Subsequently, the secretary of the Security Council of Chechnya and the nephew of the head of the region, Khamzat Kadyrov, confirmed the UAV attack on his Instagram page and stated that “everything was shot down.” In confirmation, he published footage of a drone being shot down by an anti-aircraft missile.
Read also: Mourning was announced in Azerbaijan due to the passenger plane crash
The country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Kanat Bozimbayev, said that many of the 38 people who died on board the flight could not be immediately identified due to significant burns.
He added that 29 survivors suffered moderate to severe injuries. According to the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan, among the injured are at least two children, 11 people are in intensive care.
Officially, the cause of the accident is unknown. The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency previously announced a “bird strike” due to which the plane’s commander allegedly decided to land at the alternate airfield in Aktau.
According to the Russian service of Radio Liberty, the author of the Fighterbomber channel, close to the Russian Space Forces, hinted that the cause of the disaster could not have been a collision with birds. It follows from his post that the downing of the plane could have been the result of the air defense system. A number of other pro-war Russian bloggers also write about this. Subsequently, this version was not excluded by a number of OSINT experts.
The authorities of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have launched an investigation – according to officials, the recorder was found intact in the cabin of the airliner and was recovered.
Bozimbaev currently does not assume that the plane crashed as a result of malicious actions. The Baku prosecutor’s office said that “all possible scenarios are being considered.”
Read also: 28 people survived the plane crash in Kazakhstan – Ministry of Emergency Situations
Azerbaijan Airlines has temporarily suspended all flights from Baku to Chechnya during the investigation of the tragedy.
Eyewitnesses told the Kazakh service of Radio Liberty that the nose of the plane caught fire. One of Elmir’s witnesses said that she was on a company bus near Aktau with other work colleagues when they saw the plane disintegrate above them and several people tried to help the survivors.
“We rushed to the scene, pulling people out of the tail section, which had separated. The nose of the plane was on fire. We pulled out those who survived in the tail – they were badly wounded and screaming,” she said.
At Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, the families of passengers of flight J2-8243 gathered in a specially designated place, waiting for news about the fate of their loved ones.
Vugar Ismailov, whose friend Khabib Ismailov was on board the plane, told RFE/RL that he had not yet received any news about him. According to him, 25-year-old Khabib was on his way to Dagestan via Grozny for work:
“I dropped a friend off at the airport this morning. He was going to Dagestan to work… He really didn’t want to go on this trip.”
Nezaket Bayramova, whose sister Jamilya Bisloeva was among the passengers of the plane, told the Turan news agency that she still does not know what happened to her sister.
“We called the hotline that was set up (for relatives – ed.)they took our information and said they would report back. But there is still no news,” she said.
A passenger plane of Azerbaijan Airlines crashed on the morning of December 25 near the city of Aktau. There were 62 passengers and five crew members in the plane.