According to one of the passengers of the Azerbaijani plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, they heard “at least one loud noise” as it approached the ground. It is said that the crash was caused by a surface-to-air missile of Russia.
In an interview with Reuters, Subhankul Rahimov talked about the situation inside the plane.
– I thought that the plane would break into pieces – said Rahimov, who was in the hospital and added that he started praying while waiting for the disaster. Rahimov, after the explosion, the plane behaved strangely, “as if it was drunk”. After the natural disaster, he said, there was silence on the ship, and then the cries of the wounded were heard.
Flights to Russia were suspended
Four sources “aware of the preliminary findings” of the Azerbaijan crash investigation, interviewed by Reuters on Thursday, believe the plane was shot down by mistake by Russian air defenses. The Embraer-190 passenger plane was flying from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Chechnya, which is part of the Russian Federation. However, the car went off the road hundreds of kilometers away and crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. At least 38 people died, 29 people survived.
Azerbaijan Airlines announced on Friday that it will suspend flights to 7 Russian cities from Saturday: Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara, Grozny and Makhachkala until the investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority of Azerbaijan is completed. This was reported by ws with reference to the representatives of the airline.
Azerbaijan Airlines flights to other Russian airports – Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Astrakhan, Kazan and Novosibirsk – have not been canceled.
Also READ: “There are no birds at an altitude of more than 1500 meters.” What hit the Azerbaijani plane?
Shortly before the announcement of the suspension of flights, an Azerbaijani airliner flying from Baku to Mineralnye Vody returned from the Caspian Sea to the airport of the capital of Azerbaijan, Meduza portal reports.
On Thursday, the Israeli airline El Al suspended all flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow due to “changes in the Russian airspace”. The decision of the Israeli airline was the result of preliminary assessments that the reason for the crash of the Azerbaijani plane on Wednesday was the fire of the Russian air defense system.
Main photo source: PAP/EPA
