Russia Again Shoots Down A Passenger Airliner Killing Half of Its Passengers
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The NewYork Times
As investigators focused on Russian air defense as the probable cause of Wednesday’s crash of a passenger plane in Kazakhstan, the aviation authorities in Moscow on Friday suggested that a Ukrainian drone attack may have played a role.
The Russian statement was made as lawmakers in Azerbaijan, whose flagship airline operated the plane, began to blame Russia for the crash and demanded an apology from Moscow.
The Azerbaijan Airlines flight was traveling from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, with 67 people onboard, and crashed on Wednesday on the shore of the Caspian Sea near Aktau in Kazakhstan. Thirty-eight passengers and crew members died but 29 people aboard survived. Most of the plane’s fuselage was severely burned.
Investigators from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia have opened criminal inquiries to determine what caused the crash. In a statement, Rosaviatsia, the Russian aviation agency, offered full cooperation.
In Azerbaijan, investigators believe that a Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system damaged the plane, which was in the vicinity of Grozny, according to two people in Baku, who were briefed on the inquiry and spoke anonymously because it was ongoing.
On Friday, Azerbaijan Airlines said it had suspended regular flights to eight Russian cities. It also said that based on the preliminary results of the Azerbaijani investigation, the plane had suffered “physical and technical external interference.” It has stopped flights to Makhachkala in neighboring Dagestan as well.
Rashad Nabiyev, Azerbaijan’s transportation minister, on Friday told the country’s state-run news agency APA that the plane crashed because of “external interference.”
“However, it will be up to investigators to determine what kind of weapon did that,” Mr. Nabiyev said. He added that surviving passengers told investigators that they heard an explosion while they were flying above Grozny, and that one of the flight attendants was injured.
The Russian authorities have said that the plane had been diverted from its original path and have offered differing explanations for why. Initially, they said the flight was diverted because of fog, and that the plane was hit by birds.
But in a statement on Friday, the head of the Rosaviatsia agency said that when the airliner was heading toward Grozny, the city’s infrastructure was being attacked by Ukrainian drones. Because of the attack, he said, an order was made for all aircraft to leave the affected airspace and that the Azerbaijani jet made two failed attempts to land in Grozny.
“The pilot was offered other airports,” said Dmitri Yadrov, the Russian aviation agency’s head. “He decided to fly to Aktau.”
Representatives of the airline did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Rasim Musabayov, a member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan, said on Friday that all facts pointed to the plane being damaged by a Russian missile. In addition to demanding an apology from Russia, Mr. Musabayov said Russia should explain why the damaged plane was not allowed to land at other Russian airports near Grozny.
“If someone thinks that we are allies with Russia and therefore we would close our eyes on everything, then they are mistaken,” Mr. Musabayov said in a phone interview. “There aren’t that many countries that are on good terms with Russia now,” he added. “If Moscow doesn’t make the right steps in this situation the list might get shorter.”
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters on Friday that Russia cannot “offer any theories until the investigation comes up with some results.”
Here is what we know about the crash.
Here’s what you need to know:
The plane was on a regular flight to Grozny.
The plane had severe issues with altitude control.
Investigators are focusing on Russian air defense.
The plane was on a regular flight to Grozny.
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| flightradar24 |
The Embraer 190 airliner was making a regular flight on Wednesday from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Chechnya in Russia, on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains. That morning, aerial battles between drones, launched by Ukraine, and Russian air defense systems were taking place in the area around Grozny and across the North Caucasus, according to residents and local news media reports.
Once in Russian airspace, the plane stopped sending radar information. Flightradar24, a flight tracking service, said the airliner had been subjected to GPS jamming near Grozny.
On Wednesday, Russian state news agencies, citing the airport in Grozny, reported that on approach to that city, the flight was diverted because of fog. Soon after the crash, the agencies cited the country’s state aviation authority statement that the plane had hit a flock of birds, causing it to attempt an emergency landing. Aviation experts cast doubt on that assertion, pointing to the military activity near the flight path at the time, and videos and images.
In Friday’s statement, the Russian authorities suggested that an order was made for all aircraft to leave the area around Grozny because of Ukrainian drone activity.
200 mi.300 km.
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| Flightrsadar24 |
While on its approach to Aktau, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, the plane again began to send radar information. That data suggested that the pilots struggled with altitude control. According to Flightradar24, a live flight tracker, data received from the plane showed that its vertical speed oscillated more than 100 times during the final 74 minutes of the journey.
Experts suggested the plane probably was rendered uncontrollable because its electrical and hydraulic systems had been severely damaged.
“You see an airplane flying wild, wild maneuvers with strong fluctuations in the course and in the flight altitude,” said Heinrich Grossbongardt, an aviation industry expert in Hamburg, Germany.
Kazakhstan’s transportation minister, Marat Karabayev, said the plane had experienced a major failure in its control systems before it entered his country’s airspace, according to Kazinform, a state news agency.
Investigators are focusing on Russian air defense.
In Azerbaijan, investigators said they believed that a missile launched by the Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system damaged the plane.
Russian pro-military bloggers have also pointed a finger at Russian air defenses. Yuri Podolyaka, a popular blogger, said in a post on Telegram on Wednesday that the airplane most likely had been “incidentally shot down by an air defense system.”
According to a video verified by The New York Times, the tail section of the aircraft was peppered with dozens of small holes.
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