MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Azerbaijan Airlines Brazilian-built jet damaged from the outside

The aircraft went down near Aktau, a Caspian Sea port in western Kazakhstan

While several theories are being thrown into the fray regarding the probable causes of Azerbaijan Airlines' Flight J2-8243 crash in Kazakhstan, one thing seems to be for sure: the Brazilian-built Embraer E-190 jet was damaged from the outside, leading to at least 38 deaths while there are 29 survivors, some of whom were also said to be in a serious condition. In the meantime, representatives of Embraer have arrived at the site where the plane crashed.

Four sources quoted by Reuters said that Russian air defenses mistakenly shot down the aircraft as Moscow claims it was prevented from landing at Grozny due to a drone attack from Ukraine. Azerbaijan Airlines issued a statement Friday mentioning “external, physical and technical interference.”

Full video of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash from today.

It shows the pilot trying to save the flight and then crashing in a fireball where miraculously close to 30 of the 67 aboard reportedly survived.

Video after the crash shows evidence of what could be bullet holes. pic.twitter.com/sXnM4AFk1x

— Paul A. Szypula  (@Bubblebathgirl) December 25, 2024

“After the bang, I thought the plane was going to shatter,” a survivor told Reuters from the hospital. “It was obvious that the plane had been damaged in some way,” he added.

The service with 67 people on board fell on Christmas Day en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, the capital of the Chechen republic on Russian territory. The aircraft went down near Aktau, a Caspian Sea port in western Kazakhstan. As a result, the carrier announced it was suspending flights to several Russian destinations as “preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft operating Azerbaijan Airlines Baku-Grozny flight J2-8243 point to external, physical and technical interference.”

The Kremlin said Friday it would not make a statement until the investigation is completed and denied having agreed with Azerbaijani and Kazakh authorities to give a joint official version. Russia's civil aviation director, however, claimed that the plane attempted to land in Grozny amid a Ukrainian drone strike. Russian authorities were also quoted as citing a possible bird strike, which prompted the captain to divert to an alternate airport.

Experts interviewed by Moscow's Izvestia do not rule out a fuel shortage. “After signaling an emergency, the plane crossed the Caspian Sea, and nothing prevented it from doing that. However, it’s clear that neither of the engines was running at the final stage of the flight, during landing,” Russian pilot Yury Sytnik was quoted as saying. “Experts need to check how much fuel was loaded onto the plane to figure out if it could have been exhausted while crossing the Caspian Sea on its way to Kazakhstan’s Aktau,” he added. The failure of both engines at once could have been caused by various factors, including fuel issues and clogged filters, the pilot also noted.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency head Dmitry Yadrov explained that the aircraft was diverted from Grozny because the airport there was temporarily closed due to Ukrainian drone attacks. There were also poor weather conditions adding to the problems on the ground, he pointed out. He also noted that the tragedy was preceded by a “very complicated situation” near the Grozny airport. “At the time, Ukrainian strike drones were conducting terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” he said, adding that this prompted a temporary closing of the Grozny airport, with personnel there placed on high alert. “Besides, there was thick fog near the Grozny airport,” Yadrov remarked. With visibility limited to 500 meters, the pilot attempted two landings but eventually chose to leave the area and head for Aktau, across the Caspian Sea.

Other reports mention an oxygen cylinder exploding on board at the time of impact, with many passengers being rendered unconscious.
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