Footage of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed and killed 38 people shows suspicious holes in the fuselage, fuelling rumours that the aircraft was shot down by Russians. The Mail has more.
The flight from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny crashed with 67 passengers and five crew members on board near Aktau, western Kazakhstan, this morning.
According to the plane’s course on Flight Radar 24, it was flying over the republic of Dagestan along the Caspian Sea coast, after which it disappeared from tracking, suggesting it was exposed to air defense systems in Russia.
It then showed up around an hour later off course and flying low above the water near western Kazakhstan before crashing.
Ahead of the crash, the crew had reported a strong impact on the hull. They assumed the aircraft hit a flock of birds but later it was reported that it was the explosion of an oxygen tank to supply the cockpit in the event of depressurisation.
This supposed sudden depressurisation of the cylinder caused significant damage to the hull and its ‘scattering into fragments’.
But new footage showing gaping holes in the side of the wreckage has raised questions whether birds or an exploded oxygen tank could have downed the plane.
There have been suggestions that Russian air defences might have caused the crash as “this doesn’t seem like birds”.
Wall Street Journal reporter Yaroslav Trofimov said speculation by Russian media included that Russian air defences mistook the passenger jet for a Ukrainian drone.
It is known the Embraer 190, belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines, was attempting to land at Russian airport Grozny, capital of Chechnya region, which at the time was under attack by Ukrainian drones.
The plane was barred from landing – with the official reason given as ‘fog’.
It is known Chechnya and three bordering areas were under attack, and that a shopping mall ignited into an inferno with a drone strike win Vladikavkaz, capital of Russian region North Ossetia.
It is also reported from security officials that Chechen air defences opened fire on drones, striking and exploding at least one. Questions have now been raised over whether the plane was damaged by anti-drone gunfire from the ground as it sought to land in Grozny.
Authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun looking into different possible versions of what had happened, including a technical problem, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
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