Azerbaijan airline blames ‘external interference’ for plane crash

Azerbaijan Airlines says preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of its plane in Kazakhstan on December 25 have blamed “physical and technical external interference”.

Thirty-eight people died when the Embraer jet descended at high speed and burst into flames 3 km (1.9 mi) short of the runway at Aktau Airport.

The plane originally tried to land at Grozny airport in southern Russia, but witnesses described an explosion before it diverted across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan.

The head of Russia’s civil aviation agency said Friday that the situation in the Chechen capital was “very complicated” and that a closed skies protocol had been implemented.

“Ukrainian combat drones were carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” Rosaviatsia chief Dmitry Yadrov said in a video statement posted on Russia’s Tass news agency.

“Because of this, a ‘carpet plan’ was introduced in the area of ​​Grozny airport, providing for the immediate departure of all aircraft from the designated area,” he said. “In addition, there was dense fog in the area of ​​Grozny airport.”

Azerbaijan Airlines did not provide details of the physical and technical interference, and the government in Baku has avoided directly blaming Russia, possibly to avoid angering President Vladimir Putin.

However, aviation experts and pro-government media in Azerbaijan believe that the aircraft was damaged by shrapnel from a Russian air-defense missile explosion.

“These are missile fragments that damaged the hydraulic system. The controls of the aircraft operate on the basis of hydraulics,” veteran Azerbaijani pilot Tahir Agagulyev told Azerbaijani media.

Flight attendant Zulfukar Asadov, who was among the 29 survivors of the crashed plane, told local media that the plane had been “hit by some type of external attack”.

“The impact caused panic inside. We tried to calm him down, make him sit. At the same time, there was another blow and my hand got injured.”

In a social media post, Azerbaijan Airlines said it was suspending flights to seven Russian cities in response to the crash “for safety reasons.”

It had already halted flights to Grozny and Makhachkala in neighboring Dagestan, but has now expanded to include the cities of Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara and Mineralnye Vody.

Meanwhile, Israel’s flagship airline, El Al, has suspended all flights to Moscow, citing the development in Russian airspace.

Ukrainian presidential spokesman Andriy Yermak said Russia should be held responsible for the accident.

The Kremlin has refused to comment on reports that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane was shot down by Russian air defence.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “This aviation incident is under investigation and until conclusions are drawn as a result of the investigation, we do not consider ourselves entitled to give any assessment.”

A vigil has been held in Azerbaijan to honor pilots who were credited with saving lives by landing part of a plane despite being killed in the crash.

Kazakh authorities are treating the injured and working closely with Azerbaijan on the investigation. However, they have refused to provide details of their accident investigation.

Reports in Baku revealed that both Russia and Kazakhstan had proposed creating a committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – a regional organization dominated by Russia – to investigate the accident, but Azerbaijan rejected the former Soviet countries. An international investigation was sought instead.