Azerbaijan :- Two passengers and one crew member on the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan told Reuters that they heard at least one loud bang as the plane approached its intended destination of Grozny in southern Russia.
Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near Aktau, Kazakhstan, after diverting from an area of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defense systems against Ukrainian attack drones. At least 38 people were killed, and 29 survived.
“After the bang…I thought the plane was going to fall apart,” Subhonkul Rakhimov, a passenger, told Reuters from the hospital.
After hearing the bang, he said he started praying and preparing for the end.
I was very scared’
“It was obvious that the plane had been damaged in some way,” he said. “It was as if it was drunk – not the same plane anymore.”
Another passenger on the plane told Reuters that she also heard a loud bang.
“I was very scared,” said Vafa Shabanova, adding that there was also a second bang.
She was then told by a flight attendant to move to the back of the plane.
Both passengers said there appeared to be a problem with the oxygen levels in the cabin after the bang.
Flight attendant Zulfugar Asadov said landing was denied in Grozny due to fog so the pilot circled − at which point there were bangs outside the aircraft.
“The pilot had just lifted the plane up when I heard a bang from the left wing. There were three bangs,” he said.
Something rammed into his left arm. The cabin lost pressure.
Beyond the horror of the crash, the passengers’ first-person accounts provide insight into what may have caused the disaster.
Azerbaijan Airlines suspended a number of flights to Russian cities on Friday, citing “physical and technical external interference” as the cause of the crash. It did not explain what the interference was.
Four sources familiar with Azerbaijan’s preliminary findings into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot it down.
Russia has stated that it is critical to wait for the official investigation to conclude before determining what occurred.
Crash landing
The Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger jet flew from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia’s southern Chechnya region, before veering hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.
“The captain said that he was advised to land the plane at sea, but he decided to set a course for Aktau and land it on the ground,” Asadov, the attendant, told me.
“He warned that there would be a hard landing and asked us to be ready and prepare the passengers.”
It crashed on the opposite side of the Caspian after an emergency, which Russia’s aviation watchdog believes was caused by a bird strike.
Passengers on the plane captured footage before it crashed, showing oxygen masks down and people wearing life vests. Later footage revealed bloodied and bruised passengers climbing out of the plane.
Rakhimov stated that after the crash landing, there was silence before the injured began to moan.
The crash has highlighted the dangers of civil aviation even when aircraft are flying hundreds of miles from a conflict zone, particularly when a major drone war is underway.
Previous disasters included Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shooting down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in 2020, which killed all 176 people on board.
In 2014, a Russian BUK missile system shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, killing 298 passengers and crew.
In 1983, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 after it deviated from course and entered prohibited airspace. During the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, the United States warship Vincennes shot down an Iran Air flight over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people on board.
Drone war
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane ran into trouble near Grozny, more than 530 miles from Ukraine’s front lines but a frequent target for Ukrainian drones that have struck far behind Russian lines.
Russia uses advanced electronic jamming equipment to confuse Ukrainian drone location and communication systems, as well as a large number of air defense systems to shoot down the drones.
‘We’re in a conflict’
Since Russia deployed thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, airlines have flown around the country, and Russia has closed major airports in southwestern Russia.
“We are in a conflict in that area, and that is not going to change,” stated Andrew Nicholson, CEO of Osprey Flight Solutions.
“The second you stick civilian aircraft in that same airspace, you massively increase the risk, particularly when a drone attack is ongoing and air defence activity is ongoing, as was the case in this scenario.”
Russia’s aviation watchdog said on Friday that the plane decided to reroute from its original destination in Chechnya due to dense fog and a local alert for Ukrainian drones.
Rosaviatsia stated that the captain was offered other airports for landing, but chose Kazakhstan’s Aktau. It stated that it would provide comprehensive support to the Kazakh and Azerbaijani investigations into the crash.
When asked about reports that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot down the aircraft, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that he had nothing to add and did not want to make any assessments until the official investigation concluded.