Azerbaijan Airlines says preliminary results of an investigation into the December 25 crash of its plane in Kazakhstan blamed “foreign material and technical interference.”
38 people were killed when the Embraer plane crashed at high speed and burst into flames three kilometers (1.9 miles) from the runway at Aktau Airport.
The plane originally tried to land at Grozny Airport in southern Russia, but witnesses spoke of an explosion before it was diverted across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan.
The head of Russia's Civil Aviation Agency said on Friday that the situation in the Chechen capital was “very complex” and that a closed-sky protocol had been put in place.
“Ukrainian drones have been carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” Dmitry Yadrov, head of Rosaviatsiya, said in a video statement published by Russia’s TASS news agency.
“For this reason, a ‘carpet plan’ was introduced in the Grozny airport area, which provides for the immediate departure of all aircraft from the designated area,” he added. “In addition, there was dense fog in the area of Grozny Airport.”
Azerbaijan Airlines did not mention details of the material and technical interference, and the government in Baku avoided directly accusing Russia, perhaps to avoid antagonizing President Vladimir Putin.
However, aviation experts and pro-government media in Azerbaijan believe the plane was damaged by fragments of a Russian air defense missile explosion.
Veteran Azerbaijani pilot Tahir Agagoliyev told the BBC: “These are fragments of a missile that destroyed the hydraulic system. The plane’s controls work on a hydraulic basis.”
Flight attendant Zulfikar Asadov, who was among 29 survivors of the ill-fated plane, told local media that the plane “suffered an external strike of some kind.”
“Its impact caused panic inside. We tried to calm them down, sit them down. At that moment, another blow occurred, and my arm was injured.”
In a post on social media, Azerbaijan Airlines said it had suspended its flights to seven Russian cities in response to the incident “for security reasons.”
It had already stopped flights to Grozny and Makhachkala in neighboring Dagestan, but has now added the cities of Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara and Mineralnye Vody.
Meanwhile, the leading Israeli airline, El Al, has suspended all flights to Moscow, due to developments in Russian airspace.
Ukrainian presidential spokesman Andriy Yermak said that Russia must be held responsible for the incident.
The Kremlin refused to comment on reports that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane was attacked by Russian air defense.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This aviation accident is being investigated, and until the results are reached as a result of the investigation, we do not consider ourselves qualified to give any assessments.”
Vigils were held in Azerbaijan to honor the pilots, who were credited with saving lives by being able to land part of the plane, despite being killed in the accident.
Kazakh authorities are treating the injured and working closely with Azerbaijan in the investigation. However, they refused to provide details of the investigation into the incident.
Reports in Baku indicate that Russia and Kazakhstan proposed forming a committee from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – a regional organization dominated by Russia – to investigate the incident, but Azerbaijan instead demanded an international investigation rather than one involving former Soviet states.
