Speculation increased on Friday that the Russian military may have played a role in the attack Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash Which killed 38 people and injured 29 survivors in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, according to experts. Which casts doubt on Moscow’s proposal Bird collisions are the cause.
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight No. 8243, an Embraer 190, was flying from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to the city of Grozny in the Russian North Caucasus region on Wednesday when its course was diverted for reasons that remain unclear two days later. At some point during the flight, the plane’s GPS was reportedly jammed, resulting in significant deviations in the flight path.
The plane crashed while trying to reach another airport in Aktau, western Kazakhstan, after flying east across the Caspian Sea. The plane crashed into a ball of flame just two miles from Aktau Airport.
Murat Usupali/Anadolu/Getty
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia opened investigations into the cause of the accident, but it was Russia that faced the most pointed questions two days later. The Kremlin urged people not to jump to conclusions, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who forged closer ties between his country and Russia during his two decades in power, said it was too early to speculate.
He said, “The information available to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to bad weather conditions and headed to Aktau Airport, where it crashed upon landing,” while the Russian Civil Aviation Authority, Rosaviatsia, suggested that the bird collision was a theory.
But a US official told CBS News there were early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft system may have hit the plane in an area where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been exchanging drone and missile launches for months. If that proves true, it would further underscore Russia’s recklessness in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, said the official, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday that U.S. officials “saw some early indications that this aircraft could certainly be shot down by Russian air defense systems.”
He assured reporters that the United States has intelligence or information indicating this possibility, but said that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are currently conducting an investigation and that the United States “will respect this process.”
Kirby said that President Biden is aware of the situation and that the United States has offered assistance to the Azerbaijani government.
“We are ready and willing to assist them if they need to in their investigations,” he added.
Independent aviation experts have also questioned the bird strike theory, pointing to damage to the fuselage as evidence of a potentially more serious explanation.
Isa Tazinbayev/AFP/Getty
“It certainly doesn’t look like a flock of birds,” said Robert Sumwalt, a CBS News aviation safety analyst and former head of the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Birds are not flying at the altitude at which the initial damage to this aircraft occurred,” Sumwalt added.
Instead, the damage bore the hallmarks of shrapnel from an airborne weapon. “The most likely hypothesis is that it was hit by an air defense missile — almost certainly,” Justin Crump, a British military veteran and security analyst, told CBS News partner BBC News. . Russian.”
The reaction of Azerbaijan Airlines and Russia to the plane crash in Kazakhstan
Azerbaijan Airlines said, in a statement carried by international news agencies, on Friday, that the plane was subjected to “external material and technical interference” during its flight, without providing further information.
Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s national aviation agency Rosaviatsiya, said in a statement on Friday that the Azerbaijani plane crashed during or after a Ukrainian drone attack around Grozny, where it was scheduled to land. According to the Associated Press, Yadrov said that “the situation in the Grozny airport area was very difficult” at the time, citing the alleged Ukrainian drone attack and dense fog in the area.
He did not specifically address allegations that the passenger plane was hit by Russian air defenses.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also declined to comment Friday on allegations of possible Russian involvement in the incident, saying it would be up to investigators to determine the cause.
Some survivors of the accident said they heard an explosion before the plane went down.
“Ukrainian drones were active at the time, and that fits with everything we’ve seen from the pilots’ communications with air traffic control,” Crump told the BBC.
Azamat Sarsenbayev – Reuters
Ukraine has It relied heavily on explosive drones Russia has been striking Russian military targets and infrastructure within the western territory of the larger neighboring country over the past year, often dropping weapons using its own air defense systems.
For many observers, the circumstances of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash and the damage to the wreckage brought to mind what happened. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down In 2014. That passenger plane was hit by a missile fired by Russian-backed forces over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Among those desperate for answers in the latest disaster in Kazakhstan are survivors of the crash, including a man who said from his hospital bed that he was sitting next to his wife on the plane when it crashed.
“I haven’t seen my wife since,” he said.
Investigators recovered both so-called “black boxes” – flight data and cockpit voice recorders – from the crash site. Experts from Brazil, where the plane was made, are scheduled to arrive in Kazakhstan on Friday to help obtain and analyze information from them.
As official investigations intensified, the Ukrainian government on Friday called for Russia to be held accountable for the incident, as Azerbaijan Airlines reportedly suspended scheduled services to seven cities in Russia.
She contributed to this report.
