An investigation is underway as speculation mounts about the cause of the plane crash in Kazakhstan

A national day of mourning was declared in memory of the victims of the plane crash in Azerbaijan on Thursday It killed 38 people and injured all 29 survivors speculation is mounting as to the possible cause of the disaster.

An Embraer 190 belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines crashed on Wednesday while flying from the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus. . .

The plane crashed about 2 miles from Aktau. Cellphone footage circulating online shows the plane making a steep descent before crashing into the ground in a ball of flames. In other images, part of its body was torn from the wings, and the rest was lying upside down in the grass.

On Thursday, state flags were lowered all over Azerbaijan, traffic was stopped across the country at noon, and signals were issued from ships and trains in connection with the nationwide minute of silence.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that it is too early to speculate on the causes of the accident, but weather conditions forced the plane to change its planned route.

“According to the information given to me, the plane changed direction between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport and crashed there during landing.

Rosaviatsia, the Russian Civil Aviation Authority, said that according to preliminary information, the pilots headed for Aktau after an emergency situation occurred on the plane due to bird strikes.

As the official crash investigation began, theories abounded about the possible cause, with some commentators suggesting that the holes seen in the plane’s tail could have been fired by Russian air defense systems that repelled a Ukrainian drone attack.

Ukrainian drones have previously attacked Grozny, the provincial capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic, and other parts of the country’s North Caucasus. Some Russian media outlets claimed another drone strike in Chechnya on Wednesday, but this has not been officially confirmed.

The aviation security company “Osprey Flight Solutions” based in Great Britain warned its customers that “the plane belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines was probably shot down by the Russian military air defense system.” Osprey provides an analysis of carriers still flying to Russia after Western airlines suspended flights during this period war in ukraine.

Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson said the company had issued more than 200 warnings about drone attacks and air defense systems in Russia during the war.

“This event reminds us why we do what we do,” Nicholson wrote online. “Despite our best efforts, it is painful to know that people are being lost in ways that could have been prevented.”

Russian military expert Yuri Podoliaka said with reference to the “France Presse” agency that the holes visible in the wreckage of the plane are similar to the holes left by the “anti-aircraft missile system”. “Everything points to it,” he wrote.

Gerard Legauffre, a former expert at France’s IEA air accident investigation agency, also said there was “a lot of shrapnel” damage to the wreckage, according to AFP.

He described it as reminiscent of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. It was hit by a surface-to-air missile by Russian-backed rebels In 2014 in eastern Ukraine.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about claims that the plane was shot down by air defenses, said: “It would be wrong to speculate before the investigators make a verdict.”

Speaker of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, Maulen Ashimbayev, also called the claims about air defense fire groundless and “unethical” and warned not to rush to conclusions based on the pictures of the fragments of the plane.

Other officials of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan similarly avoided commenting on the possible causes of the accident and said that it would be determined by investigators.