On Thursday, Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning for the victims of the accident Plane crash The accident killed 38 people and injured all 29 survivors with speculation growing about the possible cause of the accident which remained unknown.
The Azerbaijani Embraer Airlines plane 190 was on its way from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when its course was diverted for unclear reasons and crashed while trying to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan after flying east across the border. Caspian Sea.
The plane went down about 3 kilometers (about 2 mi) from Aktau. Mobile phone footage circulated online showed the plane descending heavily before crashing into the ground in the form of a fireball. Other footage showed part of the plane’s fuselage torn from the wings and the rest of the plane lying upside down in the grass.
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On Thursday, national flags were flown at half-mast across Azerbaijan, traffic across the country stopped at noon, and signals were sounded from ships and trains as the country observed a nationwide moment of silence.
The Azerbaijani President said in a press conference on Wednesday Ilham Aliyev He said it was too early to speculate on the causes of the accident, but said the weather forced the plane to change its planned route.
He added: “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.”
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rozavyatsia, said preliminary information indicated that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird collision led to an emergency on board the plane.
According to Kazakh officials, those on board were 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, six Kazakhstani citizens, and three Kyrgyz citizens.
As the official investigation into the crash began, theories abounded about the possible cause, with some commentators claiming that holes seen in the plane’s tail section may indicate that it may have come under fire from Russian air defense systems fending off a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukrainian drones had previously attacked Grozny, the capital of the Russian province of Chechnya, and other regions in the country’s North Caucasus. Some Russian media claimed that another drone attack in Chechnya occurred on Wednesday, although this has not been officially confirmed.
Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security company based in the United Kingdom, warned its clients that “the Azerbaijan Airlines plane was likely shot down by a Russian military air defense system.” Osprey provides an analysis of the airlines still flying to Russia after Western airlines halted flights during the war.
Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson said the company issued more than 200 alerts about drone attacks and air defense systems in Russia during the war.
“This incident is a stark reminder of why we do what we do,” Nicholson wrote online. “It is painful to know that despite our efforts, lives have been lost in a way that could have been avoided.”
In response to a question about allegations that the plane was fired upon by air defense assets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “it would be wrong to make hypotheses before investigators issue their verdict.”
Officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan similarly avoided commenting on the possible cause of the crash, saying it was up to investigators to determine.
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Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.
