The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation) has commented on the preliminary report on the investigation of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Embraer 190 crash near Aktau, which was released by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport. Russian officials stressed that, unlike Kazakhstan’s investigators, the Russian side hasn’t had a chance to examine external objects found in the aircraft.
Russia’s agency also highlighted that Kazakhstan’s report is preliminary in nature and does not contain a summary of the causes of the accident.
«The preliminary report confirms that the aircraft sustained damage caused by external interference. At the same time, the report does not say that the Kazakhstani side has identified those external objects, while Russia hasn’t had the opportunity to do so, as it has not received the objects for analysis,» Rosaviation said in a statement.
The agency also highlighted that the aircraft crew chose Aktau as an alternate airport on their own initiative.
«The crew disregarded suggestions from air traffic controllers to land at alternate airports in Makhachkala and Mineralnye Vody, despite their technical readiness to receive the plane. Meanwhile, information about a bird strike and an oxygen tank explosion was provided to Russian air traffic control by the AZAL pilots. They were those who said that first,» the statement read.
Earlier this week, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport published the preliminary report on the accident, revealing that the aircraft sustained numerous punctures and partial-through damages of various shapes and sizes in the rear fuselage, empennage, rudder and elevators.
Reuters, citing an Azerbaijani government source, stated that the aircraft was shot down by Russian Pantsir-S missile system. Allegedly, Azerbaijan has hold of a fragment of a Pantsir-S missile extracted from the aircraft.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Transport stated that the passenger plane was completely airworthy before its last flight. It lost access to GPS while being over Grozny and was hit after an airspace shutdown was introduced in the area.
On the morning of Dec. 25, 2024, the AZAL aircraft traveling from Baku to Grozny crashed near Aktau, carrying 67 people on board, most of them Azerbaijani citizens. The death toll reached 38.
