Azerbaijan held a nationwide day of mourning for the victims of the plane crash on Thursday it killed 38 people and left 29 survivors injured while they speculated about a possible cause of the disaster.
The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 was en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it veered for reasons still unclear and crashed while trying to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after flying east across the Caspian Sea. .
The plane went down about 2 miles from Aktau. Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the plane making a steep descent before crashing into the ground in a fireball. Other images showed part of its fuselage torn from the wings and the rest of the plane lying on the grass.
On Thursday, national flags were lowered across Azerbaijan, traffic across the country came to a halt at noon and signals sounded from ships and trains as the country observed a nationwide moment of silence.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said it was too early to speculate on the reasons for the crash, but said weather had forced the plane to change course.
“The information provided to me is that the plane changed course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau Airport where it crashed on landing “, he said.
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Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said preliminary information indicated the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird strike caused an emergency on board.
As the official investigation into the crash began, theories abounded as to a possible cause, with some commentators alleging that holes seen in the tail section of the plane possibly indicate that it may have been attacked by the systems of Russian air defense to prevent a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukrainian drones had previously attacked Grozny, the provincial capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and other regions of the country’s North Caucasus. Some Russian media claimed there was another drone strike in Chechnya on Wednesday, although this was not officially confirmed.
Osprey Flight Solutions, a UK-based aviation security company, warned its customers that “the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was likely shot down by a Russian military air defense system.” Osprey provides analysis for carriers still flying to Russia after Western airlines halted flights for the war in Ukraine.
Osprey chief executive Andrew Nicholson said the company had issued more than 200 alerts about drone attacks and air defense systems in Russia during the war.
“This incident is a stark reminder of why we do what we do,” Nicholson wrote online. “It is painful to know that despite our best efforts, lives were lost in a way that could have been avoided.”
Agence France-Presse quoted Russian military expert Yury Podolyaka as saying the holes seen in the plane’s wreckage were similar to those left by an “anti-aircraft missile system.” “Everything points to this,” he wrote.
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And Gerard Legauffre, a former expert at France’s air accident investigation agency BEA, also said there appeared to be “a lot of shrapnel damage” in the wreckage, according to AFP.
He portrayed it as a “reminiscence” of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which it was shot down with a surface-to-air missile by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
But when asked about claims the plane had been shot down by air defense assets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “It would be a mistake to make assumptions before the investigators deliver their verdict.” .
Kazakhstan Parliament Speaker Maulen Ashimbayev also cautioned against jumping to conclusions based on images of the plane’s fragments, describing allegations of air defense fire as unfounded and “unethical.”
Other officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have similarly declined to comment on a possible cause of the crash, saying it will be up to investigators to determine.