The airline and government cite “external influences” as the cause of the crash

The investigation into the cause of the plane crash in Kazakhstan is still ongoing. The Azerbaijani government and the airline now assume that the plane was damaged from the outside.

The crash of a passenger plane over Kazakhstan with 67 people on board was probably due to external violence. The operator of the crashed plane, Azerbaijan Airlines, said the crash occurred “due to physical and technical external influences,” citing preliminary investigation results.

The Azerbaijani government spoke publicly for the first time about using weapons against the plane. “The investigation will clarify what type of weapon the external influence was used,” said Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev, according to Azerbaijan’s state news agency Azertag. Damage to the wreckage and witness statements suggested that the aircraft had sustained external damage. This happened over the original destination airport of Grozny. “Accordingly, there was a sound of explosion outside, and then something hit the plane.”

While attempting to land, the Embraer 190 aircraft crashed on Wednesday near the Kazakh city of Aktau on the coast of the Caspian Sea. 38 people on board were killed; there were 29 survivors, including two people from Germany. Photos of the tail section of the accident plane show damage that resembles shrapnel impact holes from anti-aircraft weapons.

The plane had taken off from Baku, Azerbaijan, and was scheduled to fly to Grozny in the Russian Caucasus republic of Chechnya. Russian air defense is said to have been deployed in several parts of the North Caucasus this morning to ward off possible Ukrainian drone attacks.

Russian shelling suspected as the cause

More and more voices are therefore suspecting that Russian shelling could have led to the accident. Among other things, the broadcasters CNN and ABC News quoted a representative of the US government who did not rule out a missed Russian anti-aircraft fire as the cause. There are initial indications that point to this. If these are confirmed, it is conceivable that poorly trained Russian units may have mistaken the target when defending against Ukrainian drones.

Russian blogger and military expert Yuri Podoljaka had previously speculated on the Telegram online service that the holes were similar to the damage caused by an “anti-aircraft missile system.” Bernard Legauffre, a former expert at the French Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Agency (BEA), also spoke of many shrapnel fragments on the wreckage.

Russian shelling was also reported in the Azerbaijani media as a possible cause of the crash. It was said that, according to initial investigations, the aircraft was hit by a missile from a “Pantsir-S” system while approaching Grozny.

Black box should clarify the cause

The Internet portal caliber.az also reported that the pilots wanted to make an emergency landing at the Minera lnye Vody or Makhachkala airports near Grozny. However, this was not approved, so the crew piloted the damaged aircraft to Aktau.

In order to clarify the cause, the investigators are now relying primarily on the data from the so-called black box. Salvage teams were able to retrieve the flight recorders from the wreckage of the plane on Thursday evening.

of Russia Aviation Authority refers to drone attack

The Russian government has so far reacted cautiously to indications that the plane had been shot down. The investigation had to be awaited to understand what had happened, they said.

The head of the Russian aviation agency Rozawiatsia, Dmitry Yadrov, said the situation in the Grozny airport area was very complicated. At that time, Ukrainian combat drones carried out attacks in the Grozny and Vladikavkaz areas. Because of the danger posed by the drones, no take-offs and landings were allowed in Grozny and all pilots had to leave the airspace at the time of the alarm.

It was the first time that an official Russian body made a temporal connection between a drone alarm and the crash. On the Russian side, Rosawiazija is leading the investigation.

Jadrov did not comment on whether the plane was damaged by a Ukrainian drone or the use of a Russian anti-aircraft missile and then crashed. He also said that there was thick fog in Grozny at the time. The pilot of the plane made two attempts to land – without success. He then turned towards Kazakhstan.

Flights to several Russian cities suspended

Azerbaijan Airlines suspended flights to several Russian cities. It was important to take potential risks to flight safety into account, it said. However, the airports in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Astrakhan, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk will continue to be served.

The Kazakh airline Qazaq Air announced that it would not offer flights from Astana to Yekaterinburg, Russia, for a month. The airline Flydubai said it canceled flights from Dubai to two destinations in southern Russia.

On Thursday, the Israeli airline El Al announced that it would suspend connections from Tel Aviv to Moscow, citing “developments in Russian airspace.” Russia, in turn, closed the airspace in the south of the country. An Azerbaijan Airlines plane on its way to the southern Russian city of Mineralnie returned to Baku, the Russian news agency Tass reported.