The United States has seen preliminary indications that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan this week was likely shot down by Russian air defense systems, the White House said on Friday. Washington has offered to help investigate the crash, he said.
“We […] White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a call that there were some early indications that would definitely point to the possibility that the jet was downed by a Russian air defense system.
Kirby said that investigations involving Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are still ongoing. “We have offered our help in this investigation, should they need it”.
The plane crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, as it tried to land in the Russian city of Grozny and then over the Caspian Sea. Par went too far.
Azerbaijan Airlines said it had suspended flights to 10 Russian airports and that preliminary findings showed that the crash of Baku-Grozny flight J2-8243 was “caused by external physical and technical interference”.
Dmitry Yadrov, the head of Russia’s Civil Aviation Agency, said in an earlier statement that “the situation in the area of Grozny airport on that day and at that time was very complicated”.
“At that time, Ukrainian drone attackers were carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” Yadrov said, referring to a nearby city.
He said the Azeri pilot made “two attempts to land the plane in Grozny that failed in dense fog”.
“The pilot was offered other airports. He decided to go to Aktau Airport,” he added.
The explosion
The Kremlin declined to comment on the fatal crash early Friday.
“Until the results of the investigation, we don’t think we have the right to comment and we won’t,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Some aviation and military experts have pointed to signs of shrapnel damage on the plane’s wreckage as evidence that it had been hit by an air defense system.
A pro-Azerbaijani government website, CaliberAnd several other media outlets have cited unnamed Azerbaijani officials as saying they believe the crash was caused by a Russian missile fired from the Pantsir-S1 air defense system.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a “full investigation” and has hinted at Russian interference.
In a post on social media, he said, “A thorough investigation is required to establish the truth of each casualty.
One Russian survivor, Sabkhonkal Rakhimov, told state broadcaster RT that an “explosion” appeared to occur outside the plane as it attempted to land in Grozny in fog, causing the waterfall to enter.
“I wouldn’t say it was inside the plane because the skin of the body was blown off near where I was sitting,” he said.
“I grabbed the life jacket and saw there was a hole in it – it had been pierced.”
Apologized
According to a statement from Baku, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday that he called his Kazakh counterpart Qasim Jomart Tokayev, and both pledged that “the causes of the accident will be fully investigated”.
Contacted by AFPAzerbaijani government officials did not respond to questions about possible causes of the crash.
But Rasim Mosabikov, an Azerbaijani lawmaker and member of the parliament’s international relations committee, urged Russia to apologize for the incident.
“They have to accept it, punish the accusers, promise it won’t happen again, express regret and be ready to pay compensation,” Masabikov said. AFP.
He suggested the plane was not allowed to land at Grozny or a nearby Russian airport – instead it was “sent far away” across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan – in an attempt to “cover up the crime”.