He accident of Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 Embraer 190 (AZAL) that last Wednesday left 38 dead and 29 survivors, some of them in very serious condition, remains a mystery two days later. The theories and accusations by the countries involved and some of their neighbors are spreading like wildfire while a criminal investigation initiated by Azerbaijan tries to find the causes of the incident.
The flight, which departed from Baku at 07:55 local time (4:55 in Spain), ended up colliding next to the Caspian Sea and very close to the Aktau airport at 11:28 Kazakh time (7:28 in Spain) in a strange route that can be seen on the web Flightradar24where you can see the tours of aircraft in real time.
According to the application, valid position data from the flight was received up to half an hour after takeoff, something it stopped doing completely on occasions, when it also commanded erroneous data up to 20 minutes before the incidentwhen its real position could be verified. Thus, the flight approaches the Caspian Sea, as it intended to make an emergency landing at the Aktau airfield, and makes an intricate route in the shape of eight before crashing into the ground.
Public altitude and speed data show several rapid, sudden changes and “oscillating speed values.” “The aircraft was unable to maintain altitude and speed constant for at least 75 minutes,” concludes the analysis of Flightradar24.
The investigation, open
According to members of the governments ofe Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the United States and Azerbaijan itselfthe plane was knocked out by a anti-aircraft missile launched by Russia in Grozny, the initial destination of Embraer flight 190, which despite attempting to land was diverted and sent to cross the sea. Regarding this, the head of the Russian air transport agency, Dmitry Yadrov, stated this Friday that “that day at that time the situation in the Grozny airport area was very complicated. The Ukrainian combat drones were carrying out terrorist attacks against civilian infrastructure, for which response measures in the aerodrome area”.
Although at the moment, pending the outcome of the investigation, Russia has not acknowledged being responsible for the incident. “The investigation into this air incident is ongoing and prior to any post-investigation conclusions We do not feel entitled to give any type of evaluation and we will not do it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said this Friday in his daily press conference.
According to the Azeri media, for their part, The plane was hit by shrapnel from a missile of the Pantsir-S1 air defense system and the Grozny airport authorities prevented the pilot from landing there by sending him, with the intention of that the plane crashed into the seato the neighboring country. Local agencies even point out that some passengers suffered shrapnel wounds. From Russia, before acknowledging that the defense against Ukrainian drones had been activated that day, they pointed out that the flight was diverted because there was fog and that the holes in the fuselage were caused by a flock of birds.
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