Azerbaijan’s leader accused Moscow of “covering up” the crash of a passenger plane that killed 38 people last month, at a time when relations between the neighboring countries are deteriorating.
President Ilham Aliyev met on Monday (6) with the two surviving flight attendants and the families of the other deceased crew members, and declared that the preliminary investigation into the accident had confirmed that, according to Azerbaijan’s state news agency, AZERTAC .
The airspace over Grozny, the capital of Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya, only closed after the plane was hit, Aliyev claimed.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 was traveling from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to Grozny, but was forced to conduct a flight in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day. Thirty-eight people of the 67 on board died in the accident.
“I can say without fear of being mistaken that the blame for the death of Azerbaijani citizens in this accident lies with the representatives of the Russian Federation,” Aliyev declared. “We demand justice, we demand that the guilty are punished, we demand total transparency and humane treatment.”
Days after the accident, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for the “tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace”, but did not admit his responsibility.
Putin said Russia’s air defense systems were active when the plane tried to land in Grozny, according to the Kremlin, and that the area was being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones.
Also on Monday, Aliyev again accused Russia of a “cover-up”, stating that “focusing on absurd versions” about the accident had ignited “surprise, grief and, rightly, indignation” in Azerbaijan.
“If the city of Grozny had taken timely measures to close Russian airspace over its territory, if they had observed all the rules of ground services and if there had been coordination between the armed forces and civil services of the Russian Federation, this tragedy it wouldn’t have happened,” said the president.
In a breach of protocol, his televised comments were made in Russian rather than Azerbaijani.
Aliyev also praised the crew for their heroism and bravery, praising the “professionalism” of the pilots and their ability to carry out an emergency landing and save some of the passengers.
On the plane, an Embraer 190, passengers from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were traveling.
A reported on Monday that its investigators had completed extracting data from two black box recorders they recovered from the crash. The flight records were sent to Brazil, where international experts joined their Azerbaijani counterparts to analyze the devices in a move to ensure transparency and credibility, according to Kazakhstan’s state news agency.
The data was sent to Kazakh authorities investigating the accident, according to Reuters. The Kazakh government is cooperating with Azerbaijan in the investigation.
On the other hand, the Russian investigative commission opened a criminal case in relation to the catastrophe, as reported by the Kremlin.
Images and images after the accident showed whose origins have not yet been confirmed.
“I am sure that in the near future we will know the first results and everything will fall into place. We will also know the full picture of the tragedy that occurred,” said Aliyev. “It will be an important moment for the full investigation of the tragedy and the punishment of its perpetrators.”
