Kazakhstani pilot suggests transparency in Aktau crash probe
The most famous female pilot from Kazakhstan, the former head of the Department of Flight Operations of the Civil Aviation Committee, Toty Amirova, has commented on the plane crash near Aktau, in which 38 people died.
On Wednesday, December 25, a passenger plane from Azerbaijan Airlines, en route from Baku, Azerbaijan to Grozny, Russia, crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan. The crash resulted in the deaths of 38 people, with 29 others injured.
A cross-departmental investigative and operational group under the leadership of the General Prosecutor's Office of Kazakhstan has been appointed to investigate the disaster. It includes experts from the Transport Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Toty Amirova, the renowned Kazakh pilot, spoke about the crash. She suggested that the investigative commission might include representatives not only from the plane's manufacturer in Brazil but also from the engine's manufacturing country— the United States.
"Many citizens fear that the commission might hide the real cause of the accident, but I am confident that in our reality, nothing can be hidden. Over the past few years, technology has significantly improved, and in modern planes, information from black boxes is replicated on servers, and some airlines have online recordings of black boxes, making their destruction almost impossible," stated the pilot, as quoted by tengrinews.kz.
"Additionally, recordings of conversations between the dispatcher and pilots can even be listened to in real-time and are recorded on electronic media," added Toty Amirova.
According to PAP, Azerbaijan Airlines reported on Friday, December 27, that, based on preliminary findings, the plane experienced "external physical and technical interference."
Media reports suggest that the crash was caused by a Russian surface-to-air missile. This explanation for the tragedy is supported by an American official, quoted by the "Financial Times," who stated that the Azerbaijani passenger plane "may have been hit by a Russian air defense system."
