Hypothesis was mounting Friday that Russia’s army may have had a job within the Azerbaijan Airways airplane crash that killed 38 folks and left 29 survivors injured in Kazakhstan on Christmas day, with specialists casting doubt on Moscow’s suggestion {that a} chicken strike was responsible.
Azerbaijan Airways Flight 8243, an Embraer 190 plane, was flying from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the 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 throughout the flight the airplane’s GPS monitoring was reportedly jammed, resulting in vital deviations within the flightpath.
The airplane crashed whereas making an attempt to achieve 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.
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Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia all opened investigations into the reason for the crash, however it was Russia going through probably the most pointed questions two days later. The Kremlin has urged folks to not leap 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 take a position.
“The data supplied to me is that the airplane modified its course between Baku and Grozny on account of worsening climate circumstances and headed to Aktau airport, the place it crashed upon touchdown,” he mentioned, as Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, steered the chicken strike principle.
However a U.S. official informed CBS Information there have been early indications a Russian anti-aircraft system might have struck the airplane in a area the place Ukrainian and Russian forces have traded drone and rocket fireplace for months. The official, who spoke to CBS Information on the situation of anonymity, mentioned if that proved to be true, it might 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 would definitely level to the likelihood that this jet was introduced down by Russian air protection techniques.”
He confirmed to reporters the USA has intelligence or data pointing to the likelihood however mentioned Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are at the moment 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 supplied help to the Azerbaijani authorities.
“We stand prepared and keen to assist them, ought to they want it with their investigation,” he mentioned.
Unbiased aviation specialists had been additionally casting doubt on the chicken strike principle, and pointing to wreck seen on the airplane’s fuselage as proof of a extra nefarious potential clarification.
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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 injury occurred on this airplane,” added Sumwalt.
As an alternative, the injury 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 most probably 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 an announcement reported by worldwide information companies on Friday, mentioned the airplane skilled “exterior bodily and technical interference” throughout its flight, with out providing additional data.
Dmitry Yadrov, the top of Russia’s nationwide aviation company Rosaviatsia, mentioned in an announcement Friday that the Azerbaijani airplane crashed throughout or after a Ukrainian drone assault round Grozny, the place it had been scheduled to land. In line with The Related Press, Yadrov mentioned “the scenario within the space of Grozny airport was fairly troublesome” on the time, citing each the purported Ukrainian drone assault and heavy fog within the area.
He didn’t particularly handle 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 potential Russian involvement within the crash, saying it might 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 site visitors management,” Crump informed the BBC.
Azamat Sarsenbayev/REUTERS
Ukraine has relied closely on explosive drones to hit Russian army and infrastructure targets contained in the a lot bigger neighboring nation’s western territory during the last 12 months, and Russia usually shoots the weapons down with its air protection techniques.
For a lot of observers, the circumstances of the Azerbaijan Airways crash and the injury to the airplane’s wreckage recalled the downing of Malaysia Airways Flight 17 in 2014. That passenger jet was hit by a missile launched by Russian-backed forces over Japanese Ukraine, killing all 298 folks 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 containers” — the flight information and cockpit voice recorders — from the crash web site. Consultants from Brazil, the place the airplane was constructed, had been on account of arrive in Kazakhstan Friday to assist retrieve and analyze the knowledge 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 providers to seven cities in Russia.
contributed to this report.
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