The president of Azerbaijan has accused Russia of shooting down an Azerbaijan Airlines flight on Christmas Day. The air crash killed at least 38 people and injured 29.
President Ilham Aliyev told state television on Sunday: “We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia.
“We are not saying that it was done intentionally, but it was done.”
Aliyev made the accusation as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia conduct a joint investigation into what happened.
Here’s what we know about the crash:
Where did the passenger plane go down?
The plane crashed about 3km (1.8 miles) from the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.
It was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to Grozny, capital of the Chechnya region in southern Russia.
What happened to the Azerbaijan Airlines plane?
The plane had to divert from its original route because of heavy fog in Grozny and make an emergency landing.
Commercial aviation-tracking websites recorded the flight travelling north along its scheduled route on the west coast of the Caspian Sea before it disappeared. It later reappeared on the east coast, circling near Aktau’s airport before ultimately crashing.
“According to preliminary reports, the plane requested landing at an alternative airport before the accident … due to heavy fog in Grozny,” Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova reported from Moscow.
The nearest Russian airport, in Makhachkala, Dagestan, was closed earlier in the day due to drone activity.
Strong GPS jamming in the region may have further complicated navigation and contributed to the crash, according to an online post by FlightRadar24.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze caused by the crash while 150 emergency workers and medical teams, including specialist doctors flown in from Astana, treated the injured.
The airline has set up a hotline for family members of the passengers and posted all their names on its social media pages.
Who was on board?
The Embraer 190 carried 62 passengers and five crew members.
According to Kazakh officials, the people on Flight J2-8243 were citizens of four countries:
- 42 Azerbaijani citizens
- 16 Russian citizens
- Six Kazakh citizens
- Three Kyrgyz citizens
How many of them survived?
There are 32 survivors, including two children, who have been hospitalised, and many are in critical condition. Many were pulled from the wreckage while some, according to first responders and video footage, dragged themselves out.
Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev announced 38 people had been killed.
The Russian news agency Interfax quoted emergency workers at the scene as saying both pilots, according to a preliminary assessment, died in the crash.
Aliyev declared Thursday a day of mourning in Azerbaijan The president, who was flying to Russia for a summit at the time, said he was informed of the crash in midair.
“I immediately gave instructions for the plane to return to Baku,” Aliyev said in a statement issued by his office.
Why did the plane crash?
According to Azerbaijan’s authorities, the plane was shot down by Russia.
Initially, Russia’s aviation watchdog said on Telegram that the crash was reportedly due to an “emergency situation” after a bird strike.
Aliyev said on Sunday: “Unfortunately, for the first three days, we heard nothing from Russia except delirious versions.”
Shortly after, images and videos of the crash started surfacing, showing deep holes and pockmarks on the aircraft.
“No bird can ever cause such damage. It’s absurd and criminal to claim such a thing,” a Kazakh aviation safety expert told Al Jazeera last week on the condition of anonymity.
A Kremlin statement was released on Saturday, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin “apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured”.
The statement added: “At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks.” The statement fell short of saying whether the air defence systems struck the passenger plane.
What investigations are taking place?
Kazakh, Azerbaijani and Russian authorities said they were investigating the crash.
“An investigative team, led by the deputy prosecutor general of Azerbaijan, has been dispatched to Kazakhstan and is working at the crash site,” the Prosecutor General’s Office in Azerbaijan said in a statement.
Azerbaijan’s state news agency, Azertac, said the team dispatched to Aktau for an “on-site investigation” also included Azerbaijan’s emergency situations minister and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines. Azertac said the plane’s flight recorder, which investigators use to determine the causes of aviation accidents, had been found.
Aliyev, in his statement, said a “criminal case has been launched” and the Azerbaijani public would be “regularly informed” about progress in the investigation.
Kazakhstan has formed a government commission to examine the cause of the disaster and ensure that the families of the dead and injured were getting the help they need.
The investigations are focusing on potential technical problems and the closure of nearby airspace.
Embraer, the Brazilian manufacturer of the aircraft, has expressed its willingness to assist with the inquiries.
