Azerbaijani plane crash: Missile strike suspected in Kazakhstan
The preliminary report on the crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane, which went down in December in Kazakhstan, suggests damage possibly by "external objects."
The document, published on the website of the Kazakhstani government, details extensive damage to the aircraft's fuselage, tail, and right engine, but does not offer a definitive cause of the crash.
Dozens of holes in the fuselage
The 53-page report calls for further investigations and expert analyses to ascertain the nature and origin of the damage. Meanwhile, Reuters, citing a source in the Azerbaijani government, reported that the aircraft was struck by a Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile defence system.
- The Azerbaijani side possesses a fragment of a Pantsir-S missile which was extracted from the aircraft and identified through international expertise - the source stated.
The crash occurred on 25 December 2024, in the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, resulting in 38 fatalities. The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was en route from Baku to Grozny in Chechnya. On board were 16 Russians, several citizens of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with the majority of passengers being Azerbaijani citizens.
Putin apologised right after the crash
The black boxes from the Embraer-190 plane were sent to Brazil for analysis, involving Azerbaijani, Russian, and Kazakh experts, before being handed over to Kazakhstan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated on 29 December that the plane was damaged due to accidental fire from Russian territory during an attack by Ukrainian drones on facilities in Chechnya.
Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, apologised in a phone conversation with Aliyev for the "tragic incident" involving the Azerbaijani plane, although the Kremlin did not directly admit that a Russian missile struck the Embraer-190.
