Azerbaijan Airlines tragedy: Survivors recount harrowing crash
Flight attendant Aydan Rahimli described the dramatic events aboard the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that was shot down. The disaster occurred on 25 December in Kazakhstan. Twenty-nine people survived.
Flight 8243 of Azerbaijan Airlines from Baku to Grozny ended in tragedy. On 25 December, the plane crashed in Kazakhstan, and of the 67 people on board, 29 survived.
Among those who were fortunate to escape the tragedy was flight attendant Aydan Rahimli. She recounted the harrowing moments to "Khazar Khabar" reporters.
She survived the plane crash. remembers the explosions
Rahimli recalls that there were two powerful explosions on board that damaged the aircraft. Shrapnel injured passengers and crew.
"One passenger was also injured in the leg," Rahimli reports. The flight attendant also described how her colleague, Hokuma Alijewa, who died, was helping passengers until the last moments.
Another colleague of hers, on the other hand, survived the crash. Flight attendant Zulfugar Asadov, in an interview with the "New York Times," said: "Thank God I'm alive."
Aydan was not conscious until the end. She only regained consciousness when she was taken out of the wreck. "I opened my eyes and saw workers. I asked where I was, and they said that we were in Aktau," the flight attendant recounted.
Preliminary findings indicate that the plane was shot down by a Russian Pantsir-S system. There were also reports of disruptions in navigation systems. Azerbaijani government sources state that the missile was fired during a defence against Ukrainian drones.
The Azerbaijan Minister of Transport and the press service of Azerbaijan Airlines confirm that the disaster was the result of external factors. The Azerbaijani authorities are demanding an investigation to explain the causes of the tragedy and identify those responsible for the plane being shot down.
