A total of 38 passengers were killed, while 29 survived on Wednesday after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku to Grozny crashed as it attempted to make an emergency landing near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
The investigation into the Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 crash in Aktau on Wednesday will now focus on what weapon caused the incident, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev said on Friday after speaking with the survivors in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
On Thursday, Azerbaijani government sources confirmed to Euronews that an initial investigation revealed a Russian surface-to-air missile was fired at the plane on Wednesday as it flew over Chechnya.
Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was flying from the country’s capital of Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.
During its flight, the plane crashed whilst attempting to an emergency landing in the city of Aktau in southwestern Kazakhstan — killing 38 people and leaving 29 survivors injured.
Sources said that despite the pilot’s requests for an emergency landing, the aircraft was not allowed to land at Russian airports, leaving it to divert from its path towards the Kazakh city across the Caspian Sea.
An official probe into the crash has not yet concluded. However, the survivors told the authorities they heard three blast sounds that seemed to come from outside as the aircraft flew over Grozny.
“During our visit to survivors, including those with Russian citizenship, all of them, without exception, stated that they heard three blast sounds when the aircraft was above Grozny city,” Nabiyev told the Baku-based international outlet AnewZ.
“They indicated that these sounds came from outside, suggesting there was an external impact on the plane,” he added.
One flight attendant sustained injuries to her hand, while another passenger suffered injuries to her hand and leg as a result of the explosions, Nabiyev added.
“In other footage, holes are visible on the plane’s wing, along with various signs of damage inside the plane, particularly in its interior parts, caused by what appears to be an impact from sharp external objects,” he explained.
“Our investigation team, along with aviation specialists invited for this case, will now examine what kind of weapon — or rather what kind of rocket — was used.”
Airlines refuse to fly over Russia
On Friday, Azerbaijan Airlines announced it would suspend flights from Baku to seven Russian airports, including Grozny, until the final results of an investigation into the crash were released.
In addition, Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air said it would suspend its flights from Astana to Yekaterinburg, citing an ongoing risk assessment of flights to Russia.
Israel’s El Al said flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow for this week would be cut due to “developments in Russia’s airspace”.
Moscow has remained tight-lipped about suspicions from reports and aviation experts that the plane could have been hit by a Russian air defence missile.
On Friday, Russia’s aviation chief said a Ukrainian drone attack was under way in the region of Chechnya at the time an Azerbaijani airliner attempted to land before diverting to Kazakhstan and crashing there earlier this week.
