‘Russian missile shot down plane in Kazakhstan’

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan yesterday was most likely shot down by Russian air defenses. This is what sources within the Azerbaijani government say to the Reuters news agency and the channel Euronews. The sources say they base themselves on the first studies.

The missile was said to have been fired by a Pantsir-S air defense system during a Ukrainian drone attack in the same region. The aircraft was allegedly mistaken as an enemy aircraft. The rocket exploded next to the plane, hitting passengers and staff. Dozens of people died.

The British aviation security company Osprey Flight Solutions also calls it likely that a Russian missile was the cause of the crash.

Other Russian and Ukrainian military experts came to the same conclusion. A Russian Telegram channel says it has a full transcript of the conversation between the pilots and the control tower.

This would show that the Embraer 190 first lost its GPS connection and contact with the air traffic controller was lost. This made it impossible for the crew to land in the Chechen capital Grozny as planned. Then there was the explosion next to the plane. The plane went out of control and had to make an emergency landing.

The sources said the damaged plane was not cleared to land at Russian airports despite the pilot’s request to make an emergency landing.

The aircraft was en route from Baku to Grozny in Chechnya. 38 passengers were killed and 29 people survived the crash, although some of them are in serious condition. There has been no official response from the Kremlin so far.