An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed on the morning of December 25 in the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board the Embraer 190.
Euronews has obtained information from official sources involved in the investigation of the accident, saying that as the plane approached the city of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, Russia - the destination of the flight, the surviving passengers heard an explosion and an object resembling shrapnel hit and damaged the fuselage.
The information published by Euronews is similar to that of the international news channel AnewZ based in Azerbaijan. AnewZ quoted a Russian military blogger as saying, “The damage to the plane suggests that the plane may have been accidentally hit by an anti-aircraft missile system.”
Grozny is heavily guarded because of the fighters of Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov and because Chechnya remains vital to the Kremlin in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As a result, the Chechen capital is a potential target for Ukrainian drones.
Flight 8432 from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny made an emergency landing about 3 km from Aktau after reportedly colliding with a flock of birds, the airline reported.
Azerbaijan Airlines said that on board the plane there were 37 passengers who were Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, 6 Kazakh citizens and 3 Kyrgyz citizens.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 shows the plane flying in a figure-eight pattern as it approached the airport in Aktau. The plane's altitude fluctuated significantly in the final minutes of the flight before it crashed.
FlightRadar24 pointed out that the plane had faced “heavy GPS interference,” which resulted in “poor ADS-B data transmission.”
Social media videos obtained by news channel AnewZ show the plane attempting an emergency landing and breaking into a fireball upon hitting the ground.
Speaking at a press conference, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev noted that it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash but said weather had forced the plane to change course.
“The information provided to me is that the plane changed its route between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions. The plane arrived at Aktau airport and crashed while landing,” the president said.
