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.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Why are these two still at it…..Trump wants to negotiate, as does Putin…..Has that Biden /Obummer puppet said anything yet…..
I’m no expert but that doesn’t look like a bird strike…
Accident hypothesis seems plausible but a deliberate strike would suit some people quite well – that would be the same people who have been operating successfully behind the scenes to keep this abomination going for as long as it has.
The calibre of Russian soldiers, including those operating air defence systems, is not high. Recruits are offered sizeable inducements:
‘Russian volunteers heading to war are offered substantial one-time payments, ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 rubles, as well as monthly salaries of about 2,500 rubles. In the case of disability, they are compensated with 40,000 rubles. In the event of death, the payment to their families is reportedly around 70,000 rubles,”
The payments aren’t uniform and depend on where the recruit comes from. The majority of the mobilised men reportedly come from small villages, industrial towns, and poor republics. Signing up for military service earns them thousands of rubles as opposed to the 300-400 rubles their jobs offer
“The gamble, however, comes with the risk of death.’
These are typical recruits:
https://x.com/wartranslated/status/1872254220143149231?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
As a consequence, much Russian air defence is set to ‘auto engage’:
‘Immediately after the first photos and videos from the crash site of the passenger Embraer 190, which was flying from Baku to Grozny on December 25, appeared, it became clear that the official version that the plane had crashed due to a flock of birds was nonsense. Because the very characteristic traces of anti-aircraft missile debris on the tail fin simply leave no room for imagination.
In particular, it is known that the Pantsir SAM system was used during the repulse of the attack by Ukrainian long-range drones on Grozny. But for any air defense system operator, the difference on the radar between a drone, a light aircraft, and a passenger airliner with a wingspan of under 30 meters, to which are added completely different speed and altitude parameters, is quite clear.
But not for the Russian military. Because the Russian Pantsir SAM system has an analogue of the Russian innovation – a fully automatic mode. The Russians themselves boasted about this feature in 2020 and said that Pantsir-S received “signs of artificial intelligence” and will be able to shoot down targets without human intervention . Officially, this is mentioned on the website of the so-called Russian Ministry of Defense….a person does not have time to shoot down targets in the same way as what they call “artificial intelligence” does, but in fact it is a fairly simple algorithm – to shoot down everything in the range without selecting targets.
And despite the fact that any civilian aircraft signals that it is civilian – in the Russian Federation this is ignored. We should add that such automatic modes of operation exist both in individual air defense systems and are implemented through unified control systems, when one system automatically controls several air defense systems at once, operating without operator intervention.’
‘Azerbaijani government sources have exclusively confirmed to Euronews on Thursday that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Aktau on Wednesday.
According to the sources, the missile was fired at Flight 8432 during drone air activity above Grozny, and the shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew as it exploded next to the aircraft in mid flight.
Government sources have told Euronews that the damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite the pilots’ requests for an emergency landing, and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan.
According to data, the plane’s GPS navigation systems were jammed throughout the flight path above the sea.’
https://www.euronews.com/2024/12/26/exclusive-preliminary-investigation-confirms-russian-missile-over-grozny-caused-aktau-cras
Any aircraft crash is a tragedy. If Ukraine was attacking the area then all civil aircraft should have been warned away.
The rouble currently converts to one US cent. These payments to Russian servicemen seem anything but generous.
There have been reports that missing (and simply abandoned dead) Russian troops do not trigger compensation for tge families
Just Google “russian army monthly salary” to get presumably more accurate information. For example:
The salary of a contract soldier starts at 210,000 rubles per month. That means people who enlist in the war receive sign-on bonuses and monthly wages greater than a month’s oil or gas sector salary.
Earlier this month, the mayor of Moscow set an upfront payment for city residents signing up to fight in Ukraine at 1.9 million roubles ($21,777) from the city budget, bringing their annual pay in their first year of service to 5.2 million roubles. 31 Jul 2024
Not quite as low as some people maintain.
Don’tconfuse the issue with verifiable information. You should know that misinformation and inuendo is how this works.
https://youtu.be/1J04wUKZUCI?si=VTsQ39gFBVqL2Wmh
A “bird strike” usually means bird or birds being sucked into the engine(s). This can cause engine parts to fragment and be “fired” out the rear onto the rear fuselage. This could explain “shrapnel” holes.
Best perhaps to wait for the official investigation.