The wreckage of Azerbaijan Airways Embraer 190 lays on the bottom close to the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.
Azamat Sarsenbayev/AP
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Azamat Sarsenbayev/AP
Azerbaijan on Thursday noticed a nationwide day of mourning for the victims of the aircraft crash that killed 38 individuals and left all 29 survivors injured as hypothesis mounted a couple of potential explanation for the catastrophe, with some consultants saying that the airliner was broken by Russian air protection hearth.
Azerbaijan Airways’ Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian metropolis of Grozny within the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for causes but unclear and crashed whereas attempting to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan after flying east throughout the Caspian Sea.
The aircraft went down about 3 kilometers (round 2 miles) from Aktau. Cellphone footage circulating on-line appeared to indicate the plane making a steep descent earlier than smashing into the bottom in a fireball. Different footage confirmed a part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the remainder of the plane mendacity the wrong way up within the grass.
Because the official crash investigation began, theories abounded a couple of potential trigger, with some consultants alleging that holes seen within the aircraft’s tail part probably point out that it may have come underneath hearth from Russian air protection programs heading off a Ukrainian drone assault.
Ukrainian drones had beforehand attacked Grozny, the provincial capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and different areas within the nation’s North Caucasus. An official in Chechnya mentioned one other drone assault on the area was fended off on Wednesday, though federal authorities did not report it.
On Thursday, nationwide flags had been lowered throughout Azerbaijan, site visitors throughout the nation stopped at midday, and alerts sounded from ships and trains because the nation noticed a nationwide second of silence.
Why was the flight diverted?
Talking at a information convention Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev mentioned that it was too quickly to take a position on the explanations behind the crash, however mentioned that the climate had compelled the aircraft to alter from its deliberate course.
“The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he mentioned.
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, mentioned that preliminary info indicated that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a chicken strike led to an emergency on board.
In accordance with Kazakh officers, these aboard the aircraft included 42 Azerbaijani residents, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry on Thursday flew 9 Russian survivors to Moscow for therapy.
Mark Zee of OPSGroup, which displays the world’s airspace and airports for dangers, mentioned that the evaluation of the pictures of fragments of the crashed aircraft point out that it was virtually actually hit by a surface-to-air missile, or SAM.
“Much more to investigate, but at high level we’d put the probability of it being a SAM attack on the aircraft at being well into the 90-99% bracket,” he mentioned.
Osprey Flight Options, an aviation safety agency based mostly in the UK, warned its shoppers that the “Azerbaijan Airlines flight was likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system.” Osprey gives evaluation for carriers nonetheless flying into Russia after Western airways halted their flights in the course of the warfare.
Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson mentioned that the corporate had issued greater than 200 alerts concerning drone assaults and air protection programs in Russia in the course of the warfare.
“This incident is a stark reminder of why we do what we do,” Nicholson wrote on-line. “It is painful to know that despite our efforts, lives were lost in a way that could have been avoided.”
Caliber, an Azerbaijani information web site, claimed that the airliner was fired upon by a Russian Pantsyr-S air protection system because it was approaching Grozny. It questioned why Russian authorities failed to shut the airport regardless of the obvious drone raid within the space. Khamzat Kadyrov, head of Chechnya’s Safety Council, mentioned that air defenses downed drones attacking the area on Wednesday.
Caliber additionally requested why Russian authorities did not enable the aircraft to make an emergency touchdown in Grozny or different Russian airports close by after it was hit.
Requested concerning the claims that the aircraft had been fired upon by air protection property, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov advised reporters that “it would be wrong to make hypotheses before investigators make their verdict.”
Kazakhstan’s parliamentary Speaker Maulen Ashimbayev additionally warned in opposition to speeding to conclusions based mostly on footage of the aircraft’s fragments, describing the allegations of air protection hearth as unfounded and “unethical.”
Different officers in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have equally prevented touch upon a potential explanation for the crash, saying it is going to be as much as investigators to find out it.
