Azerbaijan air disaster: Allegations of Russian missile strike
The Azerbaijani carrier Azerbaijan Airlines announced that the cause of the plane crash in Aktau, Kazakhstan, was "external physical and technical interference." Earlier, there were accusations against Russia of using anti-aircraft defences in connection with Ukrainian drone attacks.
According to the Friday statement from Azerbaijan Airlines, the accident was caused by "external physical and technical interference."
The crash occurred on Christmas, when an Embraer 190 aircraft with 67 people on board began to lose altitude rapidly. Unofficial reports indicate that 29 people survived.
The Azerbaijani Minister of Transport explained that the aircraft attempted to land at Aktau airport twice without success.
As reported by Euro News on Thursday, the preliminary investigation showed that the crash was caused by a Russian missile launched over Grozny during operations against drones. Missile fragments were said to have damaged the aircraft and injured passengers and crew. According to the press agency AnewZ, the missile was launched from a Pantsir system.
Euro News, citing government sources, also reported that the damaged aircraft was denied permission for an emergency landing at Russian airports, despite the crew's requests.
Plane crash in Kazakhstan. Flag raised
Azerbaijani media released a recording showing residents of Baku laying flowers and displaying a flag in front of the home of the deceased pilot, Igor Kshnyakin. He was the captain of the Baku-Grozny flight.
Kshnyakin was an experienced pilot, having spent over 15,000 hours behind the controls of aircraft, of which over 11,000 hours were in the captain's seat.
