Russia’s aviation chief said Friday that a Ukrainian drone strike was underway on the territory of Chechnya after an Azerbaijani plane attempted to land before heading to Kazakhstan and crashing there earlier this week.
Dmitry Yadrov, the head of Rosaviatsiya, Russia’s civil aviation authority, did not comment on statements by an Azerbaijani lawmaker and several aviation experts who blamed Russian air defense fire for Wednesday’s crash.
Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was flying from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, but it diverted across the Caspian Sea to Aktau in Kazakhstan and crashed while attempting to land there. 38 people died in the accident and all 29 survivors were injured.
Officials in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia have remained tight-lipped about the possible cause of the crash pending an official investigation, but Rasim Musabekov, a member of Azerbaijan’s parliament, told Azerbaijani news agency Turan on Thursday that the plane was fired upon in the sky. Was. on Grozny and urged Russia to issue an official apology.
Asked about Musabekov’s statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, saying it would be up to investigators to determine the cause of the crash.
“The air incident is being investigated, and we don’t think we have the right to make any assessments until the results of the investigation are known,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
Russian aviation chief Yadrov said that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting Grozny, forcing authorities to close the area to air traffic.
Yadrov said that after the captain made two unsuccessful attempts to land in Grozny, he was offered other airports as an alternative, but he decided to fly to Aktau across the Caspian Sea.
“The situation in the area of Grozny airport was quite difficult,” he said in a statement. “There are a number of circumstances that need to be jointly investigated.”
Azerbaijani investigators are working in Grozny as part of the crash investigation, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.
As the official crash investigation began, some aviation experts reported that holes seen in the rear of the plane suggested it may have been vulnerable to fire from Russian air defense systems to avoid a Ukrainian drone strike.
Ukrainian drones had previously attacked Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic Chechnya, and other areas in the country’s North Caucasus.
FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the aircraft suffered “strong GPS jamming”, which interfered with flight tracking data. Russia has used sophisticated jamming equipment extensively to avoid drone attacks.
Following the suspension of flights from Baku to Grozny and Makhachkala on Wednesday, Azerbaijan Airlines announced on Friday that it would also stop service to more Russian cities, cutting air links to Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara. Will give.
A statement said that flights will be suspended following the preliminary results of the investigation into the accident caused by physical and technical interference of Embraer 190 aircraft J2-8243 flying from Baku to Grozny and considering the potential hazards to flight . Security.”
The company will continue to operate flights to six other Russian cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan. Those cities have also been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes in the past.
Kazakhstan’s Kazakh Air also announced Friday it was suspending flights from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains for a month.
A day earlier, Israel’s El Al suspended flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow, citing “developments in Russia’s airspace”. The airline said it would re-evaluate the situation next week to decide on resuming flights.