Azerbaijani airline flight crashed on Wednesday
Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) announced this Friday the suspension of flights to seven Russian cities, according to the Russian press cited by Reuters.
The decision comes after one of the Azerbaijani company’s planes crashed in Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, during a flight to Grozny, in Chechnya, Russia.
Despite the suspension, the company will continue to fly to six major Russian cities, including Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan killed 38 people and was reportedly hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
According to two Azerbaijani government sources, flight 8432, coming from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, was hit by shrapnel from a surface-to-air missile while it was in the airspace of the Russian city of Grozny, its destination.
The Brazilian-made Embraer 190 made the connection between Baku and Grozny, in the Russian region of Chechnya, and would carry 67 people on board.
A few hours after the start of the flight, the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane requested an emergency landing.
Due to heavy fog in Grozny, the plane was diverted first to Makhachkala, in Russian Dagestan, and then to Aktau, where it ended up crashing about three kilometers from the Caspian city’s airport.
