Russia’s aviation chief said on Friday that a Ukrainian drone attack was underway in the Chechnya region while an Azerbaijani plane attempted to land before diverting to Kazakhstan and crashing there earlier this week.
Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya, did not comment on the statements of an Azerbaijani lawmaker and several aviation experts who blamed Wednesday’s crash on Russian air defense fire.
The Azerbaijani Embraer Airlines plane 190 was flying from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when its course was diverted for reasons that are still unclear and it crashed while trying to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after flying east across the border. Caspian Sea. The accident killed 38 people and injured all 29 survivors.
Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement that it will stop its flights to more Russian cities “following the preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190, which was carrying flight J2-8243 from Baku to Grozny, due to physical and technical interference, and is looking into the matter.” Potential risks to aviation safety.”
The airline did not specify what it meant by “physical and technical interference.”
As Azerbaijan mourns the 38 people killed on board the plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, experts point to signs they say indicate that a missile, likely from Russia, was responsible for the accident.
Authorities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia remained silent about the possible cause of the accident pending an official investigation, but one lawmaker in Azerbaijan blamed Moscow. Rasim Musabekov told the Azerbaijani Turan news agency on Thursday that the plane came under fire while flying in the skies of Grozny, and urged Russia to issue an official apology.
In response to a question about Mosabekov’s statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, saying it was up to investigators to determine the cause of the accident.
“The air accident is being investigated and we do not believe that we have the right to make any assessments until conclusions are drawn as a result of the investigation,” Peskov said in a conference call with journalists.
Yadrov, the head of Russian aviation, said that while the plane was preparing to land in Grozny amid heavy fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting Grozny, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic.
Yadrov said that after the captain made two failed attempts to land in Grozny, he was offered other airports as an alternative but decided to fly to Aktau via the Caspian Sea.
“The situation in the Grozny airport area was very difficult,” he said in a statement. “There are many circumstances that need to be investigated jointly.”
The Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement that investigators from Azerbaijan are working in Grozny as part of the investigation into the incident.
Experts say the plane was likely targeted by Russian defense systems
As the official investigation into the plane crash began, some aviation experts indicated that holes seen in the plane’s tail section indicated that it may have come under fire from Russian air defense systems to repel an attack by a Ukrainian drone.
Ukrainian drones previously attacked the city of Grozny, the capital of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, and other regions in the North Caucasus of the country. A Chechen official said another drone attack in the region was repelled on Wednesday, although federal authorities did not report it.
FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the plane experienced “strong GPS jamming” that interfered with flight tracking data. Russia has extensively used advanced jamming equipment to repel drone attacks.
The airline stops its flights to more Russian cities
After suspending flights from Baku to Gruzi and Makhachkala on Wednesday, Azerbaijan Airlines on Friday also suspended services to Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa and Samara.
The company will continue to operate flights to six other Russian cities including Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan. These cities have also been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes in the past.
The Kazakh Air company, Qazak Air, also announced on Friday the suspension of its flights from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains for a month.
The previous day, the Israeli airline El Al suspended its flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow due to “developments in Russian airspace.” The airline said it will re-evaluate the situation next week to decide whether to resume flights or not.
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