Azerbaijani airliner downed by Russian air defense system, according to sources

38 passengers were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed in Kazakhstan due to Russian air defenses, four individuals familiar with the initial results of Azerbaijan’s inquiry into the incident told Reuters on Thursday.

Flight J2-8243 veered away from a region of southern Russia where Moscow has frequently deployed air defense systems against Ukrainian drone strikes, and on Wednesday it crashed in a ball of fire close to the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.

After traveling from Baku, the city of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, in the southern Chechnya region of Russia, the Embraer (EMBR3.SA), a new tab passenger aircraft, veered hundreds of kilometers across the Caspian Sea.

Following an issue that Russia’s aviation watchdog suggested might have been triggered by a bird hit, it crashed on the other bank of the Caspian.

Why it had crossed the water was not disclosed by officials. On Wednesday morning, Makhachkala, the closest Russian airport along the plane’s flight path, was closed.

According to an Azerbaijani source acquainted with Azerbaijan’s crash inquiry, preliminary findings indicate a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system struck the aircraft, Reuters said. “On the approach into Grozny, electronic warfare systems paralyzed its communications,” the insider claimed.

“No one says it was done intentionally. Baku anticipates the Russian side to admit to shooting down the Azerbaijani aircraft, nevertheless, given the facts as they stand, the source stated.

The same preliminary finding was reached by the Azeri probe, according to three different sources. A request for comment was not answered by Russia’s Defense Ministry.

On Thursday, a U.S. official told Reuters that preliminary findings suggested the plane might have been hit by a Russian anti-aircraft system. Reports that the aircraft may have been struck by Russian air defense have greatly alarmed Canada.

The Canadian foreign ministry issued a statement on X saying, “We call on Russia to allow for an open and transparent investigation into the incident and to accept its findings.”

The idea that the airliner was brought down by Russian air defenses is a theory that Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Qanat Bozymbaev stated he could neither confirm nor refute.
When asked if it was possible that Russian air defenses fired at the aircraft, the transport prosecutor for the area where the plane crashed, Kazakh, stated that the investigation was still in its early stages.

When questioned before to the Reuters story about the possibility that Russian air defenses had fired at the plane, the Kremlin stated that it would be inappropriate to comment until the investigation was complete.

“Building hypotheses before the investigation’s conclusions is wrong,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated.

The route taken by a passenger jet from Azerbaijan to Russia is depicted on the map, along with a section of land where the precise course was unclear before to the disaster.

The route taken by a passenger jet from Azerbaijan to Russia is depicted on the map, along with a section of land where the precise course was unclear before to the disaster.

WRECKAGE.

Before the plane crashed, passengers recorded footage of people wearing life vests and oxygen masks below. Passengers were seen scrambling out of the aircraft with bruises and blood on later footage. 29 people survived.

Images of the plane wreckage revealed what looked to be shrapnel damage to the aircraft’s tail section.

Osprey Flight Solutions, a company that specializes in aviation security, warned airlines on Wednesday that the wreckage and the conditions surrounding the airspace in southwest Russia suggested that the flight may have been struck by anti-aircraft fire.

Russian air defenses have been triggered by Ukrainian military drones that have been targeting Russia’s southern areas on a regular basis in recent months. Since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the two countries have been at war.

The Russian Defense Ministry had earlier on Wednesday claimed to have shot down 59 Ukrainian drones over a number of areas.

Some were allegedly shot down over areas that border Ukraine, such as the Sea of Azov, in closed airspace. According to reports, the activity caused a temporary suspension of flight operations at Kazan Airport in Russia.

The alert also stated that the Azerbaijani aircraft encountered GPS jamming during its journey over southwest Russia, according to publicly accessible ADS-B flight tracking data.

In order to confound Ukrainian drone location and communication systems, Russia deploys sophisticated electronic jamming equipment. Numerous air defense systems have also been deployed to shoot down the drones.