Azerbaijan’s transport minister has said that the passenger plane that crashed on Christmas Day in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people, was hit by some “type of weapon”.
This comes as United States military sources suggest that the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was shot down by Russian air defences believing it to be a drone.
Here’s what we know so far.
Preliminary evidence points to Russian air defence
Azerbaijan’s transport minister Rashan Nabiyev, said “the aircraft was hit by something” and the “type of weapon used in the impact will be determined during the probe.”
Azerbaijan Airlines said on Friday preliminary findings from the investigation into the crash suggest “physical and technical external interference.”
The US has claimed it received intelligence that Russia believed the plane was a drone and launched its air defences, according to NBC News, citing two unnamed military officials. This may have been because of the plane’s irregular flight pattern and altitude, the sources said.
US national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday there were “some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defence systems.”
A drone view shows the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Azamat SarsenbayevReuters cited four sources reportedly close to Azerbaijan’s investigation who claimed that preliminary evidence suggests Russian air defences downed the plane. One said the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S missile system.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the incident is being investigated and Russia would not make any assessment until the conclusions have been published.
Russia’s civil aviation watchdog said the crash may have been caused by a bird strike.
Survivors of the crash told local and international media that they heard several large bangs before the plane went down.
Flight attendant Zulfugar Asadov told Azerbaijani media that something seemed to hit the plane and he suddenly sustained a “deep wound, the arm was lacerated as if someone hit me in the arm with an axe.”
“It was obvious that the plane had been damaged in some way,” Subhonkul Rakhimov, a passenger, told Reuters.
Jerova Salihat, another passenger, told Azerbaijani television that “something exploded” near her leg.
Survivor Vafa Shabanova said there had been “two explosions in the sky, and an hour and a half later the plane crashed to the ground.”
What happened?
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 took off from the country’s capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny on 25 December but crashed while attempting to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan after flying across the Caspian Sea.
Data from flight tracking app FlightRadar24 shows the Embraer 190 jet circled Grozny and then diverted to Aktau and was flying erratically before it crashed kilometres from the airport.
Everything we know about the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash as 38 dead
Read MoreThe crash killed 38 people and all 29 survivors were injured.
Videos shared online show passengers emerging from the wreckage, some clearly wounded.
Grozny is more than 850 km from the frontlines in Ukraine but Ukrainian drones have managed to strike targets in the region.
Local officials claimed on Friday that Russian air defences had shot down a Ukrainian drone in nearby North Ossetia on the morning of the crash.
Azerbaijan announced a national day of mourning following the crash. Most of the 67 people on board were Azerbaijani nationals but there were also citizens of Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Azerbaijani state media has released footage of one of the survivors in a hospital bed and confirmed 12 of the survivors were being transported on Thursday back to the country.
Five of the passengers need to travel with a medical team and on an aircraft from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, while the others will return on a regular flight.
Azerbaijan suspended flights to several Russian cities on Friday.
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