On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for a thorough investigation into the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane in Kazakhstan. According to him, calamities are on the scene “clear visual evidence”which allegedly indicate that Russia is responsible for the crash. TASR informs about it according to the AFP report.
The Embraer 190 aircraft of the AZAL company was headed from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku to the Chechen capital Groznyj. The plane had to during the flight change direction over the Caspian Sea and crashed while trying to land in the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. It was on board 67 people, including five crew members. The accident took its toll 38 victims.
Azerbaijan Airlines announced on Friday that according to the preliminary results of the crash investigation, he was probable cause “external physical and technical intervention”. The Azerbaijani media have already written that the machine apparently a missile of the Russian air defense system hit during the Ukrainian drone attack in Russia.
Kremlin claims about the alleged intervention declined to commentreferring to the ongoing investigation. Kazakh authorities are working closely with Azerbaijan to investigate the accident, according to the BBC declined to release details of the ongoing investigation.
Unnamed sources for the Euronews portal said that despite pilot’s request for an emergency landing there was no plane allowed to land at Russian airports, so it had to be diverted to Kazakhstan on the other side of the Caspian Sea. According to Reuters, the authorities did not explain this step. Azerbaijan’s Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev claims that survivors heard three explosions when the plane was over Grozny. “The investigation will determine what weapon was used in the attack,” said the minister.
Other Azerbaijani government officials, according to AFP they did not respond to questions regarding the possible causes of the crash. Azerbaijani MP Rasim Musabekov, however called on Russia to apologize for the incident. “They have to come to terms with it, punish the guilty, promise that it won’t happen again, express regret and willingness to pay compensation,” Musabekov told AFP. According to him, the Russian authorities they did not allow the plane to land on their territory in order to “cover up the crime”.
