Azerbaijani airline blames ‘exterior interference’ for airplane crash

The preliminary outcomes of the investigation into the crash of his airplane in Kazakhstan on December 25 implicated “exterior bodily and technical interference”.

Thirty-eight folks died when the Embraer airplane crashed at excessive velocity, catching hearth 3 kilometers from the runway at Aktau airport.

The airplane initially tried to land at Grozny airport in southern Russia, however witnesses spoke of an explosion earlier than it was diverted throughout the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan.

Russia’s civil aviation chief mentioned Friday that the scenario within the Chechen capital was “very sophisticated” and {that a} closed skies protocol had been put in place.

“Ukrainian fight drones have been launching terrorist assaults in opposition to civilian infrastructure within the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” Dmitry Yadrov, head of Rosaviatsia, mentioned in a video assertion printed on the Russian information company Tass.

“That’s the reason a ‘Carpet Plan’ was launched within the Grozny airport space, offering for the instant departure of all plane from the required space,” he defined. “As well as, there was heavy fog within the Grozny airport space.”

Azerbaijan Airways has not detailed the bodily and technical interference, and the Baku authorities has prevented straight accusing Russia, maybe to keep away from antagonizing President Vladimir Putin.

Nonetheless, aviation specialists and pro-government media in Azerbaijan consider the airplane was broken by shrapnel from the explosion of a Russian air protection missile.

“These are missile fragments that broken the hydraulic system. The airplane’s controls work on the premise of hydraulics,” Tahir Agaguliev, a veteran Azerbaijani pilot, informed the BBC.

Flight attendant Zulfuqar Asadov, who was amongst 29 survivors of the crashed airplane, informed native media that the airplane was “hit by some type of exterior strike.”

“The shock triggered an inner panic. We tried to calm them down, to make them sit down. At that second there was one other blow and I used to be injured within the arm.”

In a social media put up, Azeri Airways mentioned it was suspending flights to seven Russian cities in response to the crash “for security causes.”

It had already halted flights to Grozny and Makhachkala in neighboring Dagestan, however has now added the cities of Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara and Mineralnye Vody.

The occupying Zionist entity’s flagship airline, El Al, has in the meantime suspended all flights to Moscow, citing developments in Russian airspace.

Ukrainian presidential spokesman Andriy Yermak mentioned Russia needs to be held accountable for the accident.

The Kremlin declined to touch upon reviews that the Azerbaijan Airways airplane was hit by Russian air defenses.

“An investigation into this air incident is underway and till conclusions are drawn because of the investigation, we don’t take into account ourselves entitled to offer any evaluation,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned. .

Vigils have been held in Azerbaijan to honor the pilots, who saved lives by efficiently touchdown a part of the airplane, though they themselves have been killed within the crash.

Kazakh authorities are treating the injured and dealing intently with Azerbaijan on the investigation. Nonetheless, they refused to offer particulars of their investigation into the accident.

Reviews in Baku counsel that Russia and Kazakhstan have proposed {that a} committee of the Commonwealth of Unbiased States (CIS) – a regional group dominated by Russia – examine the crash, however Azerbaijan has as a substitute known as for a world investigation quite than an investigation involving the previous Soviet international locations.