38 passengers were killed Wednesday after Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 crashed while attempting to make an emergency landing near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
Azerbaijani government sources said exclusively confirmed to Euronews this Thursday that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Aktau on Wednesday.
According to these sources, the missile was fired at Flight 8432 during drone aerial activity over Grozny, and the shrapnel hit passengers and cabin crew when it exploded next to the plane in mid-flight.
Government sources told Euronews that the damaged plane was not allowed to land at Russian airports despite the pilots’ requests for an emergency landing, and that it was ordered to cross the Caspian Sea towards Aktau, Kazakhstan.
According to available data, the aircraft’s GPS navigation systems were blocked throughout the flight path over the sea.
The missile was fired from a Pantsir-S air defense system, Baku-based international media outlet AnewZ reported, citing Azerbaijani government sources.
According to Russian sources, at the time when the Azerbaijan Airlines flight passed over the territory of Chechnya, Russian air defense forces were actively trying to shoot down Ukrainian drones.
The head of the Security Council of the Chechen Republic, Khamzat Kadyrov (the nephew of Ramzan Kadyrov, the “strong man” of this Russian Caucasian republic), confirmed that a drone attack on Grozny took place on Wednesday morning, specifying that there were no victims or damage.
If this preliminary data is confirmed, it would be the second time in ten years that Russian forces have destroyed a commercial plane, following the crash of MH17 in Ukraine. This time, Russian citizens, as well as those from neighboring countries, are among the victims.
The crash also recalls an earlier incident in November 2018, when an Air Astana Embraer 190 lost its hydraulics over Portugal but, with the help of the Portuguese Air Force, recovered. installed without incident.
Further investigation into Wednesday’s crash is expected to uncover the circumstances surrounding the missile’s firing, the failure to land at a nearby airport in Russia and the instruction to cross the sea with a damaged plane.
Additional sources • adaptation: Serge Duchêne
