Emergency consultants paintings on the crash web site of an Azerbaijan Airways passenger jet close to the western Kazakh town of Aktau.
Issa Tazhenbayev/AFP by means of Getty Photographs
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Issa Tazhenbayev/AFP by means of Getty Photographs
The crash of an Azerbaijan Airways passenger jet over Kazakhstan on Wednesday that killed 38 other folks aboard used to be most probably led to via an antiaircraft missile, some aviation professionals say, despite the fact that an investigation continues to be ongoing. The Embraer 190 with 67 passengers and staff used to be flying from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, Russia, when it used to be diverted. Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, recommended on Friday that the airplane used to be rerouted because of thick fog and Ukrainian drone job over Chechnya. In step with publicly to be had flight-tracking information, the jet’s GPS monitoring used to be additionally jammed. Azerbaijan Airways issued a commentary pronouncing the crash used to be the results of “bodily and technical exterior interference.”
The airplane crashed in a ball of flames a couple of miles from an airport within the town of Aktau in western Kazakhstan. Of the ones aboard, 29 survived the crash. John Cox, a former pilot and aviation professional, tells NPR’s Morning Version that the erratic flight trail taken via the jet earlier than crashing seems to signify that staff individuals have been “preventing for regulate of the plane and had restricted regulate.” That, together with pictures of the airplane that confirmed puncture holes within the airplane’s tail phase, “level to the opportunity of an explosion probably of an antiaircraft missile close to the airplane,” Cox says. Russia has denied taking pictures down the airplane and Russian officers first of all blamed a hen strike for the crash. However Cox says “the proof up to now is inconsistent” with that rationalization.
“One … you do not pay attention the staff say that. Two, a hen strike does not motive the type of harm that we are seeing in this airplane,” he tells Morning Version. In a video commentary carried via Russia’s state information company TASS, the pinnacle of Rosaviatsia, Dmitry Yadrov, stated: “The location round Grozny airport on the time used to be very tricky, with Ukrainian struggle drones attacking civilian infrastructure in Grozny and Vladikavkaz.” Azerbaijan Airways has since suspended flights to Russia, The Moscow Instances stated, mentioning native experiences.
In the meantime, Azerbaijan’s minister of virtual building and transportation, Rashad Nabiyev, stated that “initial conclusions via professionals level at exterior affect,” in step with The Related Press. “The kind of weapon used within the affect will likely be made up our minds all through the probe,” he stated. At a press briefing on Friday, White Area Nationwide Safety spokesman John Kirby used to be requested via a reporter whether or not the U.S. had any intelligence indicating the airplane have been shot down. “Quick solution on your query is sure. And I’m going to depart it at that,” Kirby spoke back.
Mark Zee of OPSGroup, which does aviation possibility review, used to be quoted via the AP as pronouncing that evaluation of the photographs of the crashed airplane signifies it used to be “nearly undoubtedly” hit via a surface-to-air missile, sometimes called a SAM. “A lot more to research, however at top stage we would put the likelihood of it being a SAM assault at the airplane at being smartly into the 90-99% bracket,” he instructed the AP. Cox says the crash is harking back to the 2014 shoot-down of a Malaysian Air Boeing 777 that killed all 298 passengers and staff aboard. The flight, MH17, used to be en direction from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed over the Donetsk area of jap Ukraine. The Kremlin blamed Ukraine for taking pictures down the airplane, however an unbiased global investigation named a Buk surface-to-air missile — equipped via Russia to Moscow-backed rebels within the area — because the most probably motive. Nearly all of the ones killed aboard MH17 have been from the Netherlands and in 2022, a Dutch court docket discovered to blame of homicide 3 males who it stated had operated the missile battery.
In 2023, the Joint Investigation Staff stated there have been “robust indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin in my opinion authorized the switch of the missiles to Ukrainian separatists who shot down MH17.
