For passengers of flight 8243 Azerbaijan Airlinesthe day of Christmas It was the worst of their lives. At least 38 people traveling on board the plane They died, an accident still surrounded by questions. The president of AzerbaijanIlham Aliyev, announced this Thursday that the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office has opened a criminal investigation to clarify what happened while Ukraine accuses Russia having shot down the aircraft.
The plane was flying from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny, in Chechnya. According to preliminary information, it deviated hundreds of kilometers from its planned route due to weather conditions, and, for reasons still unknown, crashed into a field near the Kazakh town of Aktau “during the emergency landing maneuver.” Only 29 people survived the tragedy. Its altitude rose and fell noticeably before crashing, according to flight tracking data from the FlightRadar24 portal.
Accusations against Moscow
Shortly after, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, accused Moscow of the accident. “This morning, an Embraer 190 plane of an Azerbaijani airline, flying from Baku to Grozny, was shot down by a Russian air defense system,” he said in a message posted on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.
He Kremlin He has reacted to the speculation by calling it a mistake and asking that the investigation be respected. The Russian civil aviation authority has indicated that, according to preliminary information, the pilots diverted to the Kazakh town of Aktau after a bird hit the plane and caused a emergency on board.
However, sources outside Kiev They dismiss the Russian explanation and suggest that the plane was shot down. Fighterbomber Telegram channel suspected of being run by Russian army captain Ilya Tumanovpublished a video in which leaked remains of the aircraft appear and assured that it was unlikely that they were caused by the impact of birds. “It’s almost impossible,” added Kazakh aviation expert Serik Mukhtybayev. “Everything points to (…) anti-aircraft missile systems,” noted popular Russian pro-war blogger Yuri Podolyaka.
Respect the research
The president of the Kazakh Senate, Ashimbayev Maulen, has stressed that none of the three countries mentioned (Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan) “are interested in hiding information.” “Everything will be made available to the public,” he promised.
Aliyev, the Azerbaijani president, was heading to St. Petersburg on Wednesday to attend an international summit hosted by the Russian president, Vladimir Putinwhen flight 8243 crashed into the ground. Upon hearing the news, he returned to Baku and ordered the creation of a commission to investigate the matter thoroughly and examine the causes of the accident. “There are several theories, but I think it is premature to talk about them,” he concluded.
