On Thursday, Azerbaijani officials confirmed to Euronews that a Russian surface-to-air missile was the cause of Wednesday's Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in the city of Aktau.
Officials said a rocket was fired at Flight 8432 while it was operating a drone over Grozny, fragments hitting passengers and flight attendants and exploding next to the plane mid-flight.
Plane crash in Kazakhstan. Media: The plane was hit by a Russian missile
Despite the pilots' requests for an emergency landing, the damaged plane was not allowed to land at any Russian airport and was ordered to fly through the Caspian Sea to Aktau in Kazakhstan, the report said.
According to the data, the aircraft's GPS navigation system was disrupted along the entire flight route.
– The missile was fired from the Pantsir-S air defense system, Baku-based international agency AnewZ reported, citing Azerbaijani government sources.
See: Plane crash in Kazakhstan. Experts point to terrorist attack
According to Russian sources, Russian air defense forces were actively trying to shoot down a Ukrainian drone while an Azerbaijan Airlines airliner was flying over Chechen territory.
The Chairman of the Security Council of the Chechen Republic confirmed the drone attack on Grozny on Wednesday morning and said there were no casualties or damage.
If these initial data are confirmed, it would be the second time in a decade that the Russian military has destroyed a passenger plane, following the crash of Flight MH17 in Ukraine. The victims include not only Russian citizens but also citizens of neighboring countries.
Further investigation into Wednesday's crash is expected to reveal the circumstances surrounding the missile launch, the lack of landing clearance at a nearby Russian airport, and whether the damaged plane was ordered to cross the ocean.
Experts questioned the original version
On Thursday, aviation expert Grzegorz Bryczynski spoke on Polsat News about the possibility of a terrorist attack from the ground as a possible cause of the plane crash.
As he acknowledged, “The statement that the catastrophe was due to loss of steering is very likely and probably the correct diagnosis.”
– Just ask why this loss of control happened. He said the issues related to “gunshot wounds” in the hull plating were very puzzling.
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Experts also noted that at the altitude the plane was flying, there were no birds that could be responsible for the holes observed in the fuselage.
– One large hole and many smaller holes are visible, indicating some kind of reaction, such as an explosion of explosives from the rocket – He says this is an explosion, not a rocket hitting the machine itself. added. Being near the plane and being damaged by debris.
This theory is also supported by the fact that recordings from the cabin, available on the Internet, show that depressurization occurred before the crash, meaning that the airtightness of the cabin was lost as oxygen masks were visible. I am.
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