Exclusively – Passengers of the ill-fated Azerbaijani plane say they heard a sound before it crashed, by Reuters

Written by Gleb Stolyarov and Nelia Bagirova

BAKU (Reuters) – Two passengers and a crew member of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan told Reuters that they heard at least one loud sound as it approached its original destination in Grozny in southern Russia.

Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after being diverted from a region of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defense systems against Ukrainian attack drones. At least 38 people were killed while 29 survived.

“After the explosion… I thought the plane was going to collapse,” one of the passengers, Sobhonkul Rakhimov, told Reuters from the hospital.

He said he started saying prayers and preparing for the end after hearing the explosion.

He added: “It was clear that the plane had been damaged in some way.” “It was like she was drunk, and it wasn’t the same plane anymore.”

Another passenger on the plane told Reuters that she also heard a strong sound.

“I was very afraid,” Vava Shabanova said, adding that there had also been a second explosion.

The flight attendant then asked her to move to the back of the plane.

Both passengers said there appeared to be a problem with oxygen levels in the cabin after the explosion.

Zulfikar Asadov, a flight attendant, said that landing was prevented in Grozny due to fog, so the pilot took off at that point, and heard a noise outside the plane.

“The pilot had just raised the plan when I heard an explosion from the left wing. There were three explosions,” he said.

Something collided with his left arm. The cabin lost pressure.

Beyond the horror of the accident, the passengers’ first-person accounts give insight into what may have caused the disaster.

Azerbaijan Airlines suspended a group of flights to Russian cities on Friday, and said that it considered the incident to be the result of what it called “foreign material and technical interference.” The details of what this intervention is were not explained.

Four sources familiar with the preliminary results of Azerbaijan’s investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses shot down the plane by mistake.

Russia said it was important to wait for the official investigation to finish its work to understand what happened.

forced landing

The Embraer passenger plane had taken off from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to Grozny, in the Chechnya region in southern Russia, before deviating hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.

Host Asadov said: “The captain said he advised him to land the plane at sea, but he decided to set a course for Aktau and land it on the ground.”

“He warned that there would be a difficult landing and asked us to be prepared and prepare the passengers.”

The plane crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea after what the Russian aviation regulator said was an emergency, possibly caused by a bird collision.

Footage taken by passengers on board the plane before it crashed showed oxygen masks and people wearing life jackets. Later footage showed passengers covered in blood and bruises exiting the plane.

Rakhimov said that after the disturbance of the landing, silence prevailed before the moaning of the injured began.

The incident highlighted the risks to civil aviation even when planes fly hundreds of miles from a war zone, especially when there is a major drone war.

Previous disasters include the downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 in 2020 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, killing all 176 people on board.

In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian BUK missile system, killing 298 passengers and crew.

In 1983, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Flight 007 after it veered off course and flew through restricted airspace. In 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War, the US warship Vincennes shot down an Iran Air plane over the Gulf, killing all 290 people on board.

Drone warfare

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane encountered problems near Grozny, which is more than 850 kilometers away from the front lines in Ukraine, but remains a frequent target of Ukrainian drones bombing behind Russian lines.

Russia is using advanced electronic jamming equipment to confuse Ukrainian drone positions, communications systems, and a large number of air defense systems to shoot down drones.

Since Russia sent thousands of troops to Ukraine in 2022, airlines have been flying around Ukraine and Russia has closed major airports in southwestern Russia.

“We are in conflict in that area, and that is not going to change,” said Andrew Nicholson, CEO of Osprey Flight Solutions.

“The second time you put a civilian aircraft in the same airspace, you increase the risk significantly, especially when there is a drone attack going on and air defense activity going on, as was the case in this scenario.”

Russia’s aviation watchdog said on Friday that the plane decided to change course from its original destination in Chechnya amid heavy fog and a local warning about Ukrainian drones.

Rosavyatsia said the captain was offered other airports to land at, but he chose Aktau Airport in Kazakhstan. It said it would provide comprehensive support to the Kazakh and Azerbaijani investigations looking into the incident.

In response to a question about reports that Russian air defenses shot down the plane by mistake, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that he had nothing to add and did not want to make any assessments until the official investigation reached its conclusions.