The Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has pointed out that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed this Wednesday in the Kazakh town of Aktau, in which 38 people have died and another thirty have been injured, had been hit by Russian air defense systems.
The aircraft covered the route between the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, and Grozny, capital of the Russian region of Chechnya. Two hours into the flight, the aircraft requested an emergency landing but was denied due to fog in Grozny, so it was transferred first to Makhachkala, in Russian Dagestan, and then to Aktau.
This event occurred at a time when the Russian anti-aircraft defense was supposedly in operation against an alleged Ukrainian attack in Grozny. The latest version from the Ukrainian authorities could partly confirm these suspicions.
«This morning the Azerbaijan Airlines ‘Embraer 190’ plane flying from Baku to Grozny was shot down by a Russian air defense system», said the head of the Center for Combating Disinformation of the Russian Security and Defense Council, Andri Kovalenko, on his Telegram channel.
Kovalenko has noted that Russian authorities should have “closed the airspace over Grozny” but that, however, the plane “damaged by the Russians” was sent to Kazakhstan instead of facilitating an “emergency landing in Grozny” that could “save lives.”
Ongoing investigation
The reason for the accident is being investigated. Some information suggests that the tragedy occurred as a result of the impact of a flock of birds against the aircraft, while Other media claim that an oxygen cylinder exploded on boardcausing the pilots to lose control of the device.
The Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan has detailed in a statement that a total of 37 citizens of Azerbaijan, six from Kazakhstan, three people with nationality from Kyrgyzstan and another 16 Russians were flying inside the aircraft. The Azeri authorities have declared national mourning for Thursday.
#Ukraine #points #plane #crashed #Kazakhstan #shot #Russia
