The Kremlin issued a warning today against jumping to any “conjectures” regarding the crash of an Azerbaijani airplane that was set to land in Russia, as experts suggested potential signs of a missile detonation.
The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft went down near the Kazakh city of Aktau, an epicenter for oil and gas, yesterday.
Thirty-eight out of the 67 individuals aboard perished.
“It would be inappropriate to formulate any conjectures prior to the conclusions of the investigation,” Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov informed the press.
The Embraer 190 plane was originally scheduled to travel northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, southern Russia, but it veered significantly off course across the Caspian Sea.
An investigation is currently in progress, however, some aviation and defense specialists speculated that the aircraft may have been inadvertently struck by Russian air defense systems while traversing an area known for Ukrainian drone activity.
Russian military analyst Yury Podolyaka observed that the holes present in the plane’s wreckage resembled damage characteristic of an “anti-aircraft missile system.”
“Everything suggests that,” he noted.
A former investigator with France’s BEA air accident investigation agency also mentioned that the wreckage displayed signs of “extensive shrapnel” damage.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he indicated that the damage appeared “similar” to that of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was struck by a surface-to-air missile launched by Russia-backed rebels over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Nonetheless, Kazakh Senate speaker Maulen Ashimbayev criticized the “speculation” surrounding the incident.
He stated that it was “not feasible” to determine what may have harmed the aircraft, according to a report by Russian news agency TASS.
Initially, Azerbaijan Airlines claimed that the plane had flown through a flock of birds before retracting that statement.
The airline indicated there were 62 passengers and five crew members aboard the flight.
Kazakh authorities reported that 38 individuals lost their lives and there were 29 survivors, which included three children.
Jalil Aliyev, the father of flight attendant Hokume Aliyeva, expressed to AFP that this was meant to be her final flight before transitioning to a legal position with the airline.
“Why did her young life have to conclude so tragically?” the man questioned in a quivering voice before disconnecting the call.
The Kazakh health ministry revealed that eleven of the injured are in critical care.
Azerbaijan state news agency Azertac noted that 12 of the survivors were being transported back to Azerbaijan.
A plane carrying nine injured Russian citizens, including a child, also landed at Zhukovsky airport in the Moscow region today, according to Russia’s emergency situations ministry
