The crash of the “Azerbaijan Airlines” plane in Kazakhstan “does not look like a collision of birds” as suggested by Russia – experts

On Friday, there was growing speculation that the Russian military may have had a role in the operation The plane belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines crashed The incident that killed 38 people and injured 29 people in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, along with experts He is skeptical of Moscow’s proposal he was guilty of shooting a bird.

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, Embraer 190, was on its way from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the city of Grozny in the North Caucasus region of Russia, on Wednesday, when it was diverted two days later for unknown reasons. At some points during the flight, it was reported that the plane’s GPS tracking was jammed, causing significant deviations in the flight path.

After flying east over the Caspian Sea, the plane crashed while trying to reach another airport in the western Kazakh city of Aktau. It went down in a ball of fire just two miles from Aktau airport.

Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia launched investigations into the cause of the crash, but two days later Russia faced the most pressing questions. The Kremlin urged people not to jump to conclusions, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who established closer ties between his country and Russia during his twenty years in power, also said it was too early to speculate.

“According to the information given to me, the plane changed direction between Baku and Grozny due to deteriorating weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport and crashed there during landing,” he said, adding that the Russian civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia suggested a bird strike. theory.

But a U.S. official told CBS News that there are early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft system may have shot down the plane in an area where Ukrainian and Russian forces have traded drone and missile fire for months. The official, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said that if true, it would further highlight Russia’s recklessness in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The White House National Security Council Adviser John Kirby US officials “have seen some initial indications that this aircraft may have been shot down by Russian air defense systems,” he told reporters on Friday.

He confirmed to reporters that the United States had intelligence or information pointing to that possibility, but said that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were currently investigating and that the United States would “respect that process.”

Kirby said that President Biden has been informed about the situation and the United States has offered assistance to the government of Azerbaijan.

“We are ready and willing to help them with their research if they need it,” he said.

Independent aviation experts were also skeptical of the bird strike theory, pointing to visible damage to the plane’s fuselage as evidence of a more sinister possible explanation.

“It certainly doesn’t look like a flock of birds,” said CBS News aviation safety analyst Robert Sumwalt, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

“Birds do not fly at the altitude where the initial damage occurred on this aircraft,” Sumwalt added.

Instead, the damage bears the hallmarks of shrapnel from an airborne weapon, and British military veteran and security analyst Justin Crump told CBS News’ partner network BBC News that “the most likely hypothesis is that it was hit by an anti-aircraft missile — almost , definitely Russian.”

Azerbaijan Airlines and Russia reacted to the accident in Kazakhstan

Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement released by international news agencies on Friday that the plane faced “external physical and technical interference” during the flight, without giving further details.

Dmitry Yadrov, the head of Russia’s National Aviation Agency, said in a statement on Friday that the Ukrainian drone crashed near Grozny, where the Azerbaijani plane was supposed to land, during or after the attack. According to The Associated Press, Yadrov said at the time that the “situation in the Grozny airport area is quite difficult,” citing both the alleged Ukrainian drone attack and heavy fog in the region.

He did not specifically address the allegations regarding the downing of the passenger plane by the Russian air defense forces.

Speaking to reporters at the conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also declined to comment on allegations of Russian involvement in Friday’s crash, saying it would be up to investigators to determine the cause.

Some of the survivors of the crash said they heard an explosion before the plane landed.

“Ukrainian drones were active at the time, and that’s consistent with everything we’ve seen in terms of pilots engaging with air traffic control,” Crump told the BBC.

There is Ukraine relied heavily on explosive drones over the past year to hit Russian military and infrastructure facilities within the western territory of the larger neighboring country, and Russia often shoots down weapons with air defense systems.

For many observers, the accident conditions of “Azerbaijan Airlines” CJSC and the damage to the remains of the plane reminded. The downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 In 2014, the same passenger plane was shot down by Russian-backed forces over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

Survivors of the crash are among those seeking answers about the latest disaster in Kazakhstan, including a man who said from his hospital bed that he was sitting next to his wife when the plane crashed.

“I haven’t seen my wife since then.

Investigators recovered both so-called “black boxes” – flight data and cockpit voice recorders – from the crash site. Experts from Brazil, where the plane was built, were due to arrive in Kazakhstan on Friday to collect and analyze data from them.

As official investigations widened, the Ukrainian government on Friday called on Russia to take responsibility for the crash, as Azerbaijan Airlines suspended regular flights to seven Russian cities.

contributed to this report.

Chris Livesay

Chris Livesay is a foreign correspondent for CBS News based in Rome.