Azerbaijan Airlines has suspended flights to several Russian cities after the crash that killed 38 people
A Russian aviation official said Friday that an attack on a Ukrainian airliner was underway in the Chechnya region when an Azerbaijani airliner attempted to land before diverting to Kazakhstan and crashing there earlier this week.
Dmitry Yadrov, the head of the Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsia, did not comment on the statements of the Azerbaijani lawyer and many aviation experts who blamed Wednesday’s accident on Russian air defense fire.
An Embraer 190 of Azerbaijan Airlines was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for unknown reasons and crashed while trying to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after flying east across the road. The Caspian Sea. In this accident, 38 people died and all 29 survivors were injured.
Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement that it will suspend flights to several Russian cities “following the initial results of the investigation into the crash of Embraer 190 flight J2-8243 from Baku to Grozny, which was caused by physical and technical interference, and is considering possible accidents.” there in the safety of the plane.”
The airline did not specify what it meant by “physical and technical disruption.”
As Azerbaijan mourns the death of 38 people in a plane crash in Kazakhstan, experts point to signs they say suggest a missile, possibly from Russia, was responsible.
Authorities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia have been tight-lipped about the possible cause of the crash pending an official investigation, but a lawyer in Azerbaijan blamed Moscow. Rasim Musabekov told Azerbaijan’s Turan news agency on Thursday that the plane had been shot down in the air over Grozny, and called on Russia to formally apologize.
Asked about Musabekov’s statement, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, refused to comment, saying that it will be up to the investigators to clarify the cause of the accident.
“The air incident is being investigated and we do not believe that we have the right to do any investigation until the conclusions come out as a result of the investigation,” said Peskov in a press conference.
Yadrov, the head of aviation in Russia, said that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny there was a deep fog, Ukrainian planes were heading to Grozny, which caused the authorities to close the area to the planes.
Yadrov said that after the captain made two unsuccessful attempts to land in Grozny, he was offered other airports as an alternative but decided to fly to Aktau across the Caspian Sea.
“The situation was difficult in the area of Grozny airport,” he said in a statement. “There are many cases that need to be investigated together.”
Azerbaijani investigators are working in Grozny as part of the accident investigation, Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement.
Experts say the plane may have been shot down by a Russian air defense system
As the official investigation into the crash began, some aviation experts pointed out that holes seen in the tail section of the plane suggested it may have been hit by Russian air defense systems that are defending against Ukrainian drone attacks.
Ukrainian warplanes had previously attacked Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and other regions in the North Caucasus. An official in Chechnya said another drone attack in the region had been foiled on Wednesday, although authorities did not report it.
FlightRadar24 reported online that the plane had experienced “GPS jamming” that interfered with the flight’s tracking information. Russia has made extensive use of sophisticated jamming equipment to defend against drone attacks.
The airline is temporarily suspending flights to several Russian cities
After Wednesday’s suspension of flights from Baku to Grozy and Makhachkala, Azerbaijan Airlines on Friday also suspended service to Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa and Samara.
The company will continue to operate flights to six other Russian cities including Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan. Those cities have also been frequently targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes in the past.
Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air also announced on Friday that it would suspend flights from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
The previous day, Israel’s El Al suspended flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow citing “developments in the Russian airspace.” The airline said it will reassess the situation next week to decide whether to resume flights.
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