The Azerbaijan government believes that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused an Azerbaijan Airlines E190 aircraft to crash in Aktau, a city located in Southwest Kazakhstan.
This was asserted by Azerbaijani authorities exclusively to Euronews on December 26, 2024.
According to the report, the Azerbaijan government claims that flight J2 8432 was hit by missile shrapnel during a drone air activity as the plane was flying above Grozny. The sources also claim that, despite the airline pilots’ requests for an emergency landing, it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau.
Flight J2 8243 was flying from Baku-Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) to Grozny Airport (GRV), Russia on December 25, 2024.
The E190 aircraft, with registration 4K-AZ65, was flying at an altitude of approximately 9,144 meters when it disappeared from ADS-B range over the Caspian Sea at 08:40 local time.
Despite the Azerbaijani government’s claims regarding what transpired, it is still not officially known why the flight flew hundreds of miles off its scheduled flight path. Initially, Russia’s aviation watchdog stated that the flight path deviation may have been caused by a bird strike.
However, images of the aircraft damage that have been uploaded on social media seem to show small holes that are consistent with shrapnel from an anti-aircraft missile as opposed to a bird strike.
This is the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crash landed in Kazakhstan, allegedly because it hit a flock of birds. Flock of birds? What then are these holes? Anyone? pic.twitter.com/3AhcsYAX78
— J. C. Okechukwu (@jcokechukwu) December 26, 2024
The BBC has reported that the Russian government had cautioned against “hypotheses” about what caused flight J2 8432 to crash.
“It would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses before the investigation’s conclusions. We, of course, will not do this, and no-one should do this. We need to wait until the investigation is completed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying.
A total of 67 people were on board the flight, 29 of whom survived. Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning for the crash victims on December 27, 2024.
Investigations are currently still being held by Kazakh, Azerbaijani and Russian officials.
