The Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) passenger plane that crashed this Wednesday in Kazakhstanan accident that caused the death of 38 people, was hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile, two sources from the Azerbaijani Government told EFE this Thursday under conditions of anonymity.
According to sources, flight 8432, from Baku, was hit by shrapnel from a surface-to-air missile when it was in the airspace of the Russian city of Grozny, its destination.
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Likewise, they assured that the authorities did not allow the emergency landing requested by the Embraer pilots. 190 at Russian airports and they diverted it in the direction of the city of Aktau, in Kazakhstan, for which it had to fly over the waters of the Caspian Sea.
According to the pro-government agency Caliber.Azthe missile used against the plane was a Pantsir-S.
The same media indicates that Russian sources acknowledge that Russian anti-aircraft defenses were trying to shoot down Ukrainian drones in the skies over Chechnya, where the route of the AZAL plane took place.
The Kremlin called today not to rush to conclusions about the causes of the airliner crash. AZAL when commenting on reports that the aircraft may have been attacked.
Until now, versions of the aircraft colliding with a flock of birds and the explosion of an oxygen cylinder on board the plane were considered as possible causes of the air disaster.
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At the same time, publications began to proliferate on social networks according to which shrapnel impacts were observed in photographs of the remains of the plane’s fuselage.
The damaged plane, an Embraer 190, crashed this Thursday next to the Kazakh airport of Aktau, where it had been diverted after being denied permission to land, first, at the airport of the Russian city of Grozny, its destination, and then in that of the also Russian city of Makhachkala.
The accident left 38 dead and 29 survivorsaccording to official sources.
AZAL announced yesterday the suspension of all its flights to Grozny and Makhachkala until the causes of the tragedy are clarified.
Today it was reported that Brazilian experts will arrive in Kazakhstan this Friday to join the investigation of the air disaster.
