Kazakhstan plane crash: Russian defense suspected in attack
According to Nastojaszczeje Wriemia television, the Embraer-190 aircraft that crashed in Kazakhstan may have been shot at by the Russian air defence system.
The Embraer-190 passenger plane, travelling from Baku to Grozny, crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan. As reported by the opposition television Nastojaszczeje Wriemia, the aircraft may have been targeted by the Russian air defence system, which was responding to Ukrainian drone attacks on Grozny.
In the crash near the city of Aktau, 38 of the 67 people on board were killed. Initially, the cause of the accident was reported as a collision with a flock of birds, allegedly causing a failure in the control system. The plane was supposed to be diverted to Makhachkala but was ultimately directed to Aktau.
Was the plane shot down by Russia?
In the Nastojaszczeje Wriemia footage, the rear of the plane is riddled with holes, resembling marks from gunfire. War analyst Jan Matwiejew stated that "the shrapnel marks on the side of the plane do not indicate that a Pantsir-S1 directly hit it; they are too small. It is more likely that such a missile exploded at a certain distance from the aircraft, and (that the plane) was damaged by shrapnel, which resulted in a loss of control."
Meanwhile, Andrij Kowalenko from the Ukrainian Security Council explicitly wrote that the plane was "shot down" by the Russians.
Both Nastojaszczeje Wriemia and the Baza channel on Telegram are publishing frames from inside the plane, showing injured passengers. Matwiejew added that "this could be the result of shrapnel that penetrated the plane." Surviving passengers reported hearing two explosions "in the rear of the plane, or perhaps behind it."
"It is also strange that the crew was denied landing in both Grozny (allegedly due to fog) and Makhachkala, and was directed to Aktau (...)" - evaluated the expert quoted by the television. It cannot yet be confirmed 100 percent that the plane was shelled, although "it is unlikely that the thesis of loss of control due to a collision with a flock of birds would hold up," he emphasized.
The Kazakh section of Radio Free Europe reported that blogger Azamat Sarsenbayev, who filmed the crash site with a drone, was detained. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail for disobeying police orders. Sarsenbayev claims he was acting at the request of the BBC and Reuters.
