Increasing analysis suggests Russian air defenses might have downed Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243, which crashed in a ball of fire near Aktau,Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning, killing 38 of 67 passengers and crew.
Increasing analysis suggests Russian air defenses might have downed Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243, which crashed in a ball of fire near Aktau,Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning, killing 38 of 67 passengers and crew.
Although the cause of the airliner’s deadly crash is officially undetermined, many sources now are suggesting a Russian air-defense system downed the aircraft after it diverted its route because of weather conditions, CNN, Euronews and The Guardian reported.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has dispatched medical teams and investigators to the crash site in Aktau to help survivors and search for the cause.
“This is a great tragedy, a significant loss for the people of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said Wednesday afternoon.
He said the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office has launched a criminal case into the matter and the public will be informed about the investigation and progress of the criminal case.
Aliyev was flying from Baku to St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday to attend an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States when he learned of the airliner’s crash and ordered his plane to return to Baku.
Aliyev said the airliner was flying on the Baku-Grozny route when it changed course due to worsening weather conditions and flew toward Aktau airport. He said the crash occurred while the pilots attempted to land the aircraft.
The commercial aircraft departed the Azerbaijani capital of Baku at 7:55 a.m. local time and crashed at 10:28 a.m.
About 45 minutes prior to the crash, a Russian dispatcher informed a Kazakh control center the flight was diverted and its flight crew was having problems with its control systems, CNN reported.
The Russian dispatcher reported an oxygen tank exploded inside the passenger cabin and the pilots tried to land at the Aktau airport twice, Kazakhstan Minister of Transport Marat Karabayev told media.
The aircraft changed course, lost contact with Aktau airport dispatchers and crashed, Karabayev said.
