Kazakhstan to send flight recorders from aircraft crashed in Aktau to Brazil for decoding

According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport, flight recorders from the Embraer 190 aircraft that crashed near Aktau on Dec. 25 will be sent to Brazil for analysis.

«The decision is to send the flight recorders to the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) in Brazil, a country where Embraer aircraft are manufactured,» the agency said in a statement.

Additionally, the ministry emphasized that the country conducting the flight recorder analysis has been determined in accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation (also known as the Chicago Convention).

«Under the standards outlined in Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the state conducting an investigation and providing the flight recorder read-out determines the state for the flight recorder read-out and analysis,» the statement read.

Kazakhstan ratified the Chicago Convention in 1992 and is a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

An Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft crashed in Aktau on the morning of Dec. 25 while traveling from the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku to Grozny in Russia. The flight carried 67 passengers, the majority of whom were Azerbaijani citizens. Among the passengers were also nationals of Kazakhstan, Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Thirty-eight people were killed in the crash.

Later, speculation arose about the possible involvement of the Russian air defense system, which was defending Grozny from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attack. Subsequently, Euronews, citing sources from the Azerbaijani Cabinet, reported claims that a missile was allegedly launched during a Ukrainian attack on the city. The missile exploded near the aircraft and its fragments struck passengers and flight attendants.

After three days of silence, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev for the accident.