Azerbaijan on Thursday noticed a nationwide day of mourning for the victims of the air crash that killed 38 folks and left all 29 survivors injured as hypothesis mounted a few attainable reason for the crash that remained unknown.
Azerbaijan Airways’ Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian metropolis of Grozny within the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for causes but unclear and crashed whereas attempting to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan after flying east throughout the Caspian Sea.
The airplane went down about 3 kilometers (round 2 miles) from Aktau. Cellphone footage circulating on-line appeared to point out the plane making a steep descent earlier than smashing into the bottom in a fireball. Different footage confirmed a part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the remainder of the plane mendacity upside within the grass.
On Thursday, nationwide flags have been lowered throughout Azerbaijan, visitors throughout the nation stopped at midday, and indicators have been sounded from ships and trains because the nation noticed a nationwide second of silence.
Talking at a information convention Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that it was too quickly to take a position on the explanations behind the crash, however stated that the climate had compelled the airplane to alter from its deliberate course.
“The knowledge supplied to me is that the airplane modified its course between Baku and Grozny attributable to worsening climate situations and headed to Aktau airport, the place it crashed upon touchdown,” he stated.
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, stated that preliminary data indicated that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a hen strike led to an emergency on board.
In response to Kazakh officers, these aboard the airplane included 42 Azerbaijani residents, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals.
Because the official crash investigation began, theories abounded a few attainable trigger, with some commentators alleging that holes seen within the airplane’s tail part probably point out that it may have come below hearth from Russian air protection programs warding off a Ukrainian drone assault.
Ukrainian drones had beforehand attacked Grozny, the provincial capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and different areas within the nation’s North Caucasus. Some Russian media claimed that one other drone assault on Chechnya occurred on Wednesday, though it wasn’t formally confirmed.
Osprey Flight Options, an aviation safety agency based mostly in the UK, warned its purchasers that the “Azerbaijan Airways flight was probably shot down by a Russian army air-defense system.” Osprey gives evaluation for carriers nonetheless flying into Russia after Western airways halted their flights throughout the struggle.
Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson stated that the corporate had issued greater than 200 alerts concerning drone assaults and air protection programs in Russia throughout the struggle.
“This incident is a stark reminder of why we do what we do,” Nicholson wrote on-line. “It’s painful to know that regardless of our efforts, lives have been misplaced in a means that might have been averted.”
Requested concerning the claims that the airplane had been fired upon by air protection belongings, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed reporters that “it might be mistaken to make hypotheses earlier than investigators make their verdict.”
Officers in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have equally averted touch upon a attainable reason for the crash, saying it will likely be as much as investigators to find out it.
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Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Aida Sultanova in London, contributed to this report.
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