The Russian government warned Wednesday against promoting “hypotheses” about the cause of the crash of a Russia-bound plane that killed 38 people in Kazakhstan.
Footage of the wrecked fuselage appeared to show shrapnel damage, and some aviation experts suggested the Azerbaijani Airways plane may have been hit by an air defense system over the Russian republic of Chechnya.
The plane diverted from its destination in Chechnya across the Caspian Sea to western Kazakhstan before crashing near Aktau, Kazakhstan.
Of the 67 people on board, 29 survived. Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning for the crash victims on Thursday.
Reuters“This is a great tragedy that has brought great sorrow to the people of Azerbaijan,” President Ilham Aliyev said Thursday.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It would be wrong to present any hypotheses before the results of the investigation are known.” complete.”
The Embraer 190 aircraft took off from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on Wednesday morning. The plane was scheduled to fly to Grozny, Chechnya, but was diverted due to fog, the airline said.
A surviving passenger told Russian TV: “The pilot tried to land twice in thick fog over Grozny, and the third time something exploded.”
The plane was diverted to Aktau airport, about 450 kilometers east. Video shows the aircraft heading towards the ground at high speed 3 km (1.9 miles) from the runway before bursting into flames as it lands.
Kazakh authorities have recovered the flight data recorder and an investigation is ongoing. Shortly after the crash, Russian state TV reported that a collision between a flock of birds was the most likely cause.
But that kind of collision usually results in the plane sliding toward the nearest airfield, aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told Reuters. “You can lose control of the airplane, but the result is that you don’t fly significantly off course,” he said.
Justin Crump of risk advisory firm Sibylline said patterns of damage to the plane’s interior and exterior suggested Russian air defense forces operating in Grozny may have caused the crash.
He told BBC Radio 4: “If you look at the debris pattern we see, it looks very similar to an anti-aircraft missile exploding at the rear and left side of the aircraft.”
Chechnya has already suffered a Ukrainian drone attack this month, and authorities in neighboring Ingushetia said it was the first time a Russian region had been targeted since the war in Ukraine began.
It was reported that a woman was killed when a drone was shot down at a shopping center near North Ossetia.
Kazakhstan’s Senate President Ashimbayev Maulen emphasized that the cause of the plane crash near Aktau was not yet known.
“None of these countries – Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan – are interested in hiding information. All information will be available to the public,” he said.
Most of the passengers were Azerbaijani citizens, but some also came from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Video showed survivors crawling out of the rubble, some with visible injuries.
The injured were taken to the hospital. On Thursday, Azerbaijan’s Azertac news agency said the condition of the seven was good enough for them to return to Baku.
Azerbaijan Airlines told reporters the plane was fully serviced in October and had no technical malfunctions.
Embraer, a Brazilian manufacturer and smaller competitor to Boeing and Airbus, has a strong safety record.
