Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has accused Russia of shooting down an Azerbaijani airliner in western Kazakhstan on Christmas Day and trying to cover up the cause of the crash.
On December 28, 2024, the Kremlin confirmed that Russian air defenses were in action on December 25, 2024. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not admit that Russia was to blame for the crash. He only apologized “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace”.
During an interview with Azerbaijani state television on December 29, 2024, Aliyev called on Russia to “admit its guilt” for unintentionally shooting down the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E-190 aircraft.
“The fact that the fuselage is riddled with holes indicates that the theory of the aircraft hitting a flock of birds is completely out of discussion,” Aliyev said. “It is possible that when the aircraft was hit, the pilot could have perceived it as a collision with birds. Some circles in Russia preferred to put forward this theory.”
Aliyev has claimed that Russia was trying to “cover up” the reason for the crash for several days. He also stated that Russian agencies “put forward theories about the explosion of a gas cylinder on board the aircraft.”
“Of course, our plane was hit by accident,” Aliyev said. “Therefore, admitting guilt, apologizing in a timely manner to Azerbaijan were steps that should have been taken. Unfortunately, for the first three days we heard nothing from Russia except some absurd theories.”
An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E-190 aircraft crashed in western Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024. A total of 67 people were on board the flight, 38 of whom were killed. The Kazakh Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that 29 people survived, including three children, with 10 in critical condition.
On December 30, 2024, the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan announced that the black boxes from the crash site will be sent to Brazil’s Aviation Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA).
In a press release, published on December 29, 2024, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) called for a “thorough, impartial and transparent investigation” into the crash.
“Civil aircraft must never be the intended or accidental target of military operations,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. “The world eagerly awaits the required publication of the interim report within 30 days. The perpetrators must be held accountable and brought to justice.”
1 comment
As I understand it the airport at which the plane was attempting to land was an emergency divert; if that’s the case, what prompted a diversion from the field destination? Was it a bird strike and engine explosion, the latter of which would leave shrapnel like holes in the fuselage skin and damage to the wing, such as showed in the images presented, might even penetrate the cabin and cause injury to passengers. That COULD cause a crash, or alternatively, leave the plane more vulnerable to weapons interference and crash it that way. I HOPE the investigators will leave the politics at home and just follow the EVIDENCE.