What we all know in regards to the Azerbaijan Airways crash

On December 25, 38 individuals died when an Azerbaijan Airways flight, as a result of land in Russia, crashed in Kazakhstan.

The circumstances of the crash stay unclear, however restricted proof to date suggests it might have been broken by missiles fired by a Russian air protection system because it tried to land in Chechnya.

This is what we learn about flight J2-8243.

Early within the morning of Christmas Day, flight J2-8243 took off from the airport in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. He was as a result of land in Grozny, the capital of the Russian area of Chechnya.

On board had been 67 passengers, most of whom had been Azerbaijani nationals, in addition to nationals of Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The aircraft was an Embraer 190, operated by Azeri Airways.

Because the aircraft approached Grozny, it entered heavy fog, surviving passengers say.

They describe the pilot trying to land the aircraft twice in these circumstances.

It was on the third try, survivors say, that they felt a sequence of explosions hit the aircraft.

“The third time one thing exploded… a part of the aircraft’s hull exploded,” considered one of them advised Russian tv.

A flight attendant on the aircraft, Zulfuqar Asadov, advised native media that the impression of the strike “brought on panic inside.”

“We tried to calm [the passengers] right down to make them sit down. At that second there was one other blow and my arm was injured,” he stated.

A video filmed in flight by a passenger confirmed oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.

Azerbaijani Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev stated: “All [the survivors] with out exception, they reported listening to three explosion sounds when the aircraft was over Grozny.”

He stated the aircraft was subjected to “exterior interference” and broken internally and externally because it tried to land.

In latest weeks, Ukraine has focused Chechnya and different components of the Russian Caucasus with drone strikes.

After the crash, Moscow authorities stated such assaults had triggered a protocol to shut airspace over Grozny.

Based on native officers, a drone was shot down that morning by air protection over a shopping mall in Vladikavkaz, in neighboring North Ossetia.

It isn’t clear whether or not the closed airspace protocol – often known as the “carpet plan” – was adopted earlier than or whereas flight J2-8243 was in Russian airspace.

After the incident over Grozny, the aircraft diverted about 450 kilometers east to Aktau airport in Kazakhstan.

It stays unclear why it was diverted over the Caspian Sea – a for much longer journey than a number of different choices.

Russian aviation authorities stated the aircraft’s pilots had been “supplied different airports” however selected Aktau.

Information revealed by flight monitoring website Flight Radar reveals the aircraft zigzagging up and down because it approached Aktau, earlier than spinning and crashing a couple of kilometers from the airport.

Video taken close to the scene reveals the aircraft descending quickly by way of the air earlier than crashing to the bottom and skidding a number of hundred meters in a ball of flames.

38 individuals had been killed and 29 survived, some significantly injured. Remarkably, some survivors had been seen strolling and crawling from the aircraft wreckage.

The aircraft’s pilots are credited with saving lives by efficiently touchdown a part of the aircraft, though they themselves had been killed within the crash.

It’s believed that almost all of those that survived had been seated within the again.

Preliminary Russian media stories advised the aircraft had collided with a flock of birds.

Nevertheless, aviation specialists and others in Azerbaijan imagine the aircraft’s GPS programs had been affected by digital jamming and that it was later broken by shrapnel from missile explosions Russian air protection programs.

White Home nationwide safety spokesman John Kirby advised reporters on Friday that the USA had “early indications” that Russia was accountable, however declined to remark additional.

The Azerbaijani authorities has to date prevented instantly accusing Russia, however Azerbaijani authorities sources advised the Reuters information company that the investigation had already recognized the weapon fired in the course of the flight because the Russian anti-aircraft system Pantsir-S.

The Kremlin has to date refused to touch upon stories that the aircraft was hit by Russian weapons.

“An investigation… is underway and till the conclusions of the investigation are drawn, we don’t contemplate ourselves entitled to present any evaluation,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.

The aircraft’s flight recorders, which comprise information to find out the reason for the accident, have been discovered.

Experiences in Baku recommend that Russia and Kazakhstan have proposed {that a} committee of the Commonwealth of Unbiased States (CIS) – a regional group dominated by Russia – examine the accident, however Azerbaijan has as a substitute referred to as for an investigation worldwide.

Azerbaijan Airways and several other different airways suspended flights to some Russian cities in response to the crash.