The Azerbaijani plane was shot down, possibly by a weapon, the minister said – National
Azerbaijan's minister suggested on Friday that the plane that crashed this week was hit by a missile, citing expert analysis and a survivor's testimony that showed the plane had been hit externally.
Rashad Nabiyev's statement raised pressure on Russia. Officials in Moscow said that airstrikes are continuing in the region where the Azerbaijan Airlines plane was supposed to go, but they have not responded to the statements of aviation experts who have blamed the crash on Russian planes in response to the attack on Ukraine.
The plane was flying from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia's Chechnya region, on Wednesday when it turned towards Kazakhstan and crashed while trying to land there. In this accident, 38 people died and all 29 survivors were injured.
Nabiyev, Azerbaijan's minister of digital development and transport, told Azerbaijani media that “the preliminary conclusions of experts point to foreign influence,” as did witness testimony.
“The type of weapon used in the impact will be determined during the investigation,” Nabiyev said.
Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard a loud noise from the plane as it circled over Grozny.
Flight attendant Aydan Rahimli said that after one sound, the oxygen masks are released. He said he went to help his colleague, Zulfugar Asadov, and then they heard another noise.
Asadov said the sounds sounded like someone crashing the plane outside. He denied allegations by Kazakh officials that an oxygen canister exploded inside the plane.
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Dmitry Yadrov, the head of the aviation authority in Russia, Rosaviatsia, said on Friday as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny there was a deep fog, Ukrainian drones were heading towards the city, which caused the authorities to close the area to the planes.
Yadrov said that after the captain made two unsuccessful landing attempts, he was offered other airports but decided to fly to Aktau in Kazakhstan, across the Caspian Sea.
But he did not comment on the statements of other aviation experts, who pointed out that the holes seen in the tail section of the plane suggested that it may have been attacked by Russian air defense systems.
Ukrainian planes have attacked Grozny and other places in the North Caucasus.
Azerbaijan Airlines blamed the crash on an unspecified “physical and technical disruption” and announced the suspension of flights to several Russian airports. It did not say where the outage originated or provide other details.
The spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, refused to comment on the allegations that the plane was shot down by the Russian military, saying that it will be up to the investigators to find out the cause of the accident.
“The air incident is being investigated, and we do not believe that we have the right to make any tests until the conclusions are drawn as a result of the investigation,” said Peskov at a press conference.
If it is confirmed that the plane crashed after being hit by Russian jets, it would be the second fatal civil aviation accident related to fighting in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed by a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people on board, while flying over eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014.
Russia has denied responsibility, but a Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians and a pro-Russian Ukrainian for their role in downing a plane with an air defense system delivered to Ukraine from a Russian military base.
Azerbaijani investigators are working in Grozny as part of the investigation into Wednesday's crash, Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General's office said in a statement.
After Wednesday's suspension of flights from Baku to Grozy and Makhachkala, Azerbaijan Airlines announced on Friday that it will also suspend operations in eight other Russian cities.
The company will continue to operate flights to six Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Those cities have also been frequently targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes in the past.
Kazakhstan's Qazaq Air also announced on Friday that it would suspend flights from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
FlyDubai has also suspended flights to Sochi and Mineralnye Vody in southern Russia for the next few days.
The previous day, the Israeli airline El Al suspended flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow citing “developments in the Russian airspace.” The airline said it would update the situation next week.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
