Hypothesis was mounting Friday that Russia’s army might have had a task within the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that killed 38 individuals and left 29 survivors injured in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, with specialists casting doubt on Moscow’s suggestion {that a} hen strike was accountable.
Azerbaijan Airways Flight 8243, an Embraer 190 plane, was flying from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to town of Grozny in Russia’s North Caucasus area Wednesday when it was diverted for causes that had been nonetheless unclear two days later. In some unspecified time in the future in the course of the flight the airplane’s GPS monitoring was reportedly jammed, resulting in important deviations within the flightpath.
The airplane crashed whereas making an attempt to succeed in one other airport in Aktau, in western Kazakhstan, after flying east throughout the Caspian Sea. It got here down and burst right into a ball of flames solely about two miles from the Aktau airport.
Murat Usubali/Anadolu/Getty
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia all opened investigations into the reason for the crash, but it surely was Russia going through probably the most pointed questions two days later. The Kremlin has urged individuals to not soar to conclusions, and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, who’s cast nearer ties between his nation and Russia throughout his twenty years in energy, additionally mentioned it was too quickly to invest.
“The knowledge supplied to me is that the airplane modified its course between Baku and Grozny as a result of worsening climate circumstances and headed to Aktau airport, the place it crashed upon touchdown,” he mentioned, as Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, advised the hen strike principle.
However a U.S. official informed CBS Information there have been early indications a Russian anti-aircraft system could have struck the airplane in a area the place Ukrainian and Russian forces have traded drone and rocket hearth for months. The official, who spoke to CBS Information on the situation of anonymity, mentioned if that proved to be true, it will additional underscore Russia’s recklessness in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby informed reporters on Friday that U.S. officers “have seen some early indications that will surely level to the chance that this jet was introduced down by Russian air protection programs.”
He confirmed to reporters the USA has intelligence or data pointing to the chance however mentioned Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are at present conducting an investigation and the U.S. will “respect that course of.”
Kirby mentioned President Biden has been apprised of the scenario and the USA has provided help to the Azerbaijani authorities.
“We stand prepared and prepared to assist them, ought to they want it with their investigation,” he mentioned.
Impartial aviation specialists had been additionally casting doubt on the hen strike principle, and pointing to break seen on the airplane’s fuselage as proof of a extra nefarious attainable rationalization.
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“It definitely doesn’t seem like a flock of birds,” mentioned CBS Information aviation security analyst Robert Sumwalt, a former chairman of the Nationwide Transportation Security Board.
“Birds do not fly at the kind of an altitude that the preliminary harm occurred on this airplane,” added Sumwalt.
As a substitute, the harm bears the hallmarks of shrapnel from an airborne weapon, and British army veteran and safety analyst Justin Crump informed CBS Information’ associate community BBC Information that “the almost certainly speculation is that it was struck by an air protection missile — nearly definitely Russian.”
Azerbaijan Airways and Russia react to crash in Kazakhstan
Azerbaijan Airways, in a press release reported by worldwide information businesses on Friday, mentioned the airplane skilled “exterior bodily and technical interference” throughout its flight, with out providing additional data.
Dmitry Yadrov, the pinnacle of Russia’s nationwide aviation company Rosaviatsia, mentioned in a press release Friday that the Azerbaijani airplane crashed throughout or after a Ukrainian drone assault round Grozny, the place it had been scheduled to land. In keeping with The Related Press, Yadrov mentioned “the scenario within the space of Grozny airport was fairly tough” on the time, citing each the purported Ukrainian drone assault and heavy fog within the area.
He didn’t particularly deal with claims that the passenger jet had been hit by Russian air defenses.
Chatting with reporters on a convention name, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov additionally declined to remark Friday on the claims of attainable Russian involvement within the crash, saying it will be as much as investigators to find out the trigger.
Some survivors of the crash mentioned they heard an explosion earlier than the airplane went down.
“Ukrainian drones had been lively on the time, and that is commensurate with all the pieces we have seen with the pilots’ communication with air visitors management,” Crump informed the BBC.
Azamat Sarsenbayev/REUTERS
Ukraine has relied heavily on explosive drones to hit Russian army and infrastructure targets contained in the a lot bigger neighboring nation’s western territory over the past yr, and Russia typically shoots the weapons down with its air protection programs.
For a lot of observers, the circumstances of the Azerbaijan Airways crash and the harm to the airplane’s wreckage recalled the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014. That passenger jet was hit by a missile launched by Russian-backed forces over Jap Ukraine, killing all 298 individuals on board.
Amongst these determined for solutions in the newest catastrophe in Kazakhstan are the survivors of the crash, together with one man who mentioned from a hospital mattress that he is been sitting subsequent to his spouse on the airplane when it crashed.
“I have never seen my spouse since,” he mentioned.
Investigators have recovered each of the so-called “black packing containers” — the flight knowledge and cockpit voice recorders — from the crash website. Specialists from Brazil, the place the airplane was constructed, had been as a result of arrive in Kazakhstan Friday to assist retrieve and analyze the data from them.
Because the formal investigations ramped up, Ukraine’s authorities referred to as on Friday for Russia to be held accountable for the crash, as Azerbaijan Airways reportedly halted scheduled companies to seven cities in Russia.
contributed to this report.
