Emergency specialists work on the crash web site of an Azerbaijan Airways passenger jet close to the western Kazakh metropolis of Aktau.
Issa Tazhenbayev/AFP through Getty Photos
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Issa Tazhenbayev/AFP through Getty Photos
The crash of an Azerbaijan Airways passenger jet over Kazakhstan on Wednesday that killed 38 individuals aboard was seemingly brought on by an antiaircraft missile, some aviation consultants say, though an investigation remains to be ongoing.
The Embraer 190 with 67 passengers and crew was flying from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, Russia, when it was diverted. Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, instructed on Friday that the aircraft was rerouted on account of thick fog and Ukrainian drone exercise over Chechnya. In keeping with publicly accessible flight-tracking knowledge, the jet’s GPS monitoring was additionally jammed.
Azerbaijan Airways issued a press release saying the crash was the results of “bodily and technical exterior interference.”
The aircraft crashed in a ball of flames a couple of miles from an airport within the metropolis of Aktau in western Kazakhstan. Of these aboard, 29 survived the crash.
John Cox, a former pilot and aviation knowledgeable, tells NPR’s Morning Version that the erratic flight path taken by the jet earlier than crashing seems to point that crew members had been “preventing for management of the airplane and had restricted management.” That, together with pictures of the plane that confirmed puncture holes within the aircraft’s tail part, “level to the potential of an explosion probably of an antiaircraft missile close to the plane,” Cox says.
Russia has denied capturing down the aircraft and Russian officers initially blamed a chook strike for the crash. However Cox says “the proof thus far is inconsistent” with that rationalization.
“One … you do not hear the crew say that. Two, a chook strike does not trigger the form of harm that we’re seeing on this plane,” he tells Morning Version.
In a video assertion carried by Russia’s state information company TASS, the pinnacle of Rosaviatsia, Dmitry Yadrov, mentioned: “The state of affairs round Grozny airport on the time was very tough, with Ukrainian fight drones attacking civilian infrastructure in Grozny and Vladikavkaz.”
Azerbaijan Airways has since suspended flights to Russia, The Moscow Times mentioned, citing native reviews.
In the meantime, Azerbaijan’s minister of digital improvement and transportation, Rashad Nabiyev, mentioned that “preliminary conclusions by consultants level at exterior affect,” in accordance with The Associated Press. “The kind of weapon used within the affect will likely be decided through the probe,” he mentioned.
At a press briefing on Friday, White Home Nationwide Safety spokesman John Kirby was requested by a reporter whether or not the U.S. had any intelligence indicating the aircraft had been shot down. “Brief reply to your query is sure. And I will depart it at that,” Kirby replied.
Mark Zee of OPSGroup, which does aviation threat evaluation, was quoted by the AP as saying that evaluation of the pictures of the crashed aircraft signifies it was “nearly actually” hit by a surface-to-air missile, also referred to as a SAM. “Far more to research, however at excessive stage we would put the likelihood of it being a SAM assault on the plane at being nicely into the 90-99% bracket,” he instructed the AP.
Cox says the crash is paying homage to the 2014 shoot-down of a Malaysian Air Boeing 777 that killed all 298 passengers and crew aboard. The flight, MH17, was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed over the Donetsk area of jap Ukraine. The Kremlin blamed Ukraine for capturing down the aircraft, however an impartial worldwide investigation named a Buk surface-to-air missile — equipped by Russia to Moscow-backed rebels within the area — because the seemingly trigger. The vast majority of these killed aboard MH17 had been from the Netherlands and in 2022, a Dutch court docket discovered responsible of homicide three males who it mentioned had operated the missile battery.
In 2023, the Joint Investigation Workforce mentioned there have been “robust indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally authorised the switch of the missiles to Ukrainian separatists who shot down MH17.