Speculation continues over the cause of the crash of an Embraer 190 belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines. The plane that crashed near the city of Aktau was shot down by Russian forces, Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kirillo Budanov said. This information was reported by Euronews on Thursday.
The dramatic event happened on Wednesday morning. An Embraer 190 plane flying from Baku to Grozny crashed near Aktau airport in western Kazakhstan. The disaster left 38 people dead and 29 injured.
See: Kazakhstan disaster. Unofficial: Russian missiles were the cause
Only a few minutes later, analysts' opinions about the possible causes of the machine's collapse began to appear in Russian media. The most common was bird strikes, which caused severe damage. There were also reports that a gas cylinder on board had exploded.
Kazakhstan. General Budanau talks about cause of plane crash
General Kirillo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence, gave a completely different view of the probable cause of the crash. In an interview with military portal The Warzone, he said that Russian soldiers were responsible for the disaster.
-As far as we know, the aircraft was shot down by Russia's Pantsir S1 air defense system over Russian territory, he said.
See: Plane crash in Kazakhstan. Experts point to terrorist attack
Similar reports were previously made by experts cited by Euronews. As emphasized, this disaster was most likely the result of an attack by Russian surface-to-air missiles. The plane was attacked by mistake as it had to repel a Ukrainian drone attack on the Chechen capital.
Rasim Musabekov, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, also commented on the responsibility of the Russians. The politician claims that the Russian military is solely responsible for the attack, and that authorities in Moscow are trying to “cover their tracks” through subsequent media reports. Regarding difficult weather conditions and the potential for pilot error.
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