Plane that crashed in Kazakhstan could have been shot down by air defense system

Plane that crashed in Kazakhstan could have been shot down by air defense systems

A number of Russian social media sites and military bloggers wrote that a passenger plane flying from Baku to Grozny could have been shot down by the same air defense system that repelled a morning drone raid in Chechnya.

The crashed Azerbaijani Airlines Embraer 190 flying from Baku to Grozny was likely shot down by the same air defense system that repelled a morning drone attack in Chechnya. This version of the plane crash, which occurred near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday, December 25, was told on the Russian Baza Telegram channel and by a number of war bloggers a few hours after the tragedy. surviving passengers of the plane.

"A video is circulating showing strange marks on the tail of a plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, the holes look like those left after a gunshot or an explosion with explosives," the Baza channel reported. Military blogger Yuri Podolyaka, in turn, expressed the version that "the plane was accidentally hit by an anti-aircraft missile system," writing, "This is exactly what the damage from the operation of the air defense system looks like." "It seems that the plane was returned as a result of another attack on Grozny," he added.

In addition to the video showing holes in the tail section that could be causing problems with the plane's stabilizer and elevator, Baza also released a video showing a hole in the plane's wing, which was filmed while it was still in flight. "The video shows part of the plane's wing damaged - you can see the hole there, while the oxygen masks in the cabin have already fallen out," the channel explained.

Some of the survivors talk about the explosion

Some of the surviving passengers on the plane said the plane tried to land in Grozny three times and the last attempt was interrupted by the sound of an explosion. According to one of the passengers, the rescuer had shrapnel wounds. “There was an explosion, the skin next to me flew off where I was sitting,” he said, adding that there was thick fog at the Grozny airport. Another surviving passenger also spoke to the Mash Telegram channel about the sounds of an explosion, but said he understood the situation when the plane collided with birds.

According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, the Embraer plane may have been hit by a Pantsir air defense missile. "After the recent drone attacks on Chechnya, several Pantsirs were deployed in the republic. As can be seen from the photo of the fragments of the air defense missiles, the Pantsirs participated in repelling the morning drone attack on Chechnya. An emergency occurred on board an Azerbaijani airline plane flying to Grozny.

Plane crashes near Aktau

An Embraer 190 aircraft, flying flight J28243 from Baku to Grozny, crashed on the morning of December 25 near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan. After air traffic controllers refused to allow it to land in Grozny and Makhachkala, the plane attempted an emergency landing. A few kilometers short of Aktau airport, it crashed into a field, exploded, and caught fire. The nose section was completely burned, while the tail section fell off and survived.

In it, according to preliminary data, at least 29 passengers survived. They were taken to the Aktau hospital, their names were announced by the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan. Among them is an 11-year-old German girl. The Azerbaijani prosecutor's office reported that 32 people survived the crash, but this is not the final information. 7 Russians died in the plane crash, 9 survived, said the head of the Kazakh Ministry of Transport, Marat Karabayev.

Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev, in turn, announced that 38 people died in the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane. "The bodies are in a bad condition, mostly burned," Bozumbayev was quoted as saying by Tengrinews.kz. There were a total of 67 people on board - 62 passengers and five crew members, Tengrinews writes, citing the Kazakh Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Other versions of the causes of the plane crash

Among the possible causes of the tragedy is a collision of the plane with a flock of birds. The same version was put forward by both the Federal Air Transport Agency and Kazaeronavigatsiya. In turn, the Kazakh publication Orda.kz, citing the health department of the Mangistau region, reported that a balloon exploded on board the plane.

Azerbaijan Airlines has canceled all flights to Russia's North Caucasus without giving any indication of when they will resume. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has declared December 26 a day of mourning in the country. After the plane crash, he cut short a visit to Russia, where he was attending a CIS summit, and returned to Azerbaijan.