Azerbaijan's flag carrier announced on Friday that it will suspend flights to several Russian airports, citing potential aviation safety risks after a crash on one of its planes that many experts have called a Blame it on Russian air defense fire.
An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 was flying from the Azerbaijan capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons that were not yet clear and crashed during as he was trying to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after flying east across the Caspian Sea. The accident killed 38 people and left the 29 survivors injured.
Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement that it would suspend flights to more Russian cities “after the preliminary results of the investigation into the accident of the operational flight of the Embraer 190 flight J2-8243 from Baku to Grozny, caused by physical and technical interference, and considering potential risks to aircraft safety. “
The airline did not specify what it meant by “physical and technical obstruction.”
Authorities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia were baffled about the possible cause of the crash pending an official investigation, but a lawmaker in Azerbaijan blamed Moscow. Rasim Musabekov told the Azerbaijani Turan news agency on Thursday that the plane was shot down while in the skies over Grozny, and urged Russia to offer an official apology.
As Azerbaijan mourns the deaths of 38 people aboard a flight that crashed in Kazakhstan, experts are pointing to signs they say indicate a missile, possibly from Russia, that why?
Asked about Musabekov's statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, saying it will be up to investigators to determine the cause of the crash.
“The air incident is being investigated and we do not believe that we have the right to make any assessments until the decisions are made as a result of the investigation,” Peskov said in a conference call with officials report
Investigators from Azerbaijan are working in Grozny as part of the accident investigation, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's office said in a statement.
Experts say that the plane may have collided with the Russian defense system
As the official crash investigation began, some aviation experts pointed out that holes seen in the tail section of the plane suggested it could have come under fire from Russian air defense systems fending off a drone attack Ukrainian.
Ukrainian drones had attacked Grozny, the capital of the Russian Republic in Chechnya, and other regions in the North Caucasus of the country. An official in Chechnya said another drone attack on the region was foiled on Wednesday, although federal authorities did not report it.
FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the plane had encountered “strong GPS interference” that interfered with aircraft tracking data. Russia has made extensive use of sophisticated jamming equipment to stop drone attacks.
Airline suspends flights to more Russian cities
After Wednesday suspended flights from Baku to Grozy and Makhachkala, Azerbaijan Airlines on Friday suspended service to Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa and Samara.
The company will continue to operate flights to six other Russian cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan. These cities have also been targeted several times by Ukrainian drone strikes in the past.
Kazakhstan's Qazaq Air also announced on Friday that it was suspending flights from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains for a month.
The previous day, Israel's El Al suspended flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow citing “developments in Russian airspace”. The airline said it will reassess the situation next week to decide whether to resume flights.
