More details have emerged about Azerbaijan Airlines
Flight J28243, which crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday morning, killing 38 passengers onboard and leaving several more in serious condition. Along with suspicious holes in the fuselage suggestive of anti-aircraft shrapnel, ADS-B data shows the aircraft flying erratically long before it crash-landed – before this, it was also impacted by GPS spoofing activities in the region.
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J28243 data
Flight data from Flightradar24 shows that the Embraer E190 (registration: 4K-AZ65) was transmitting erratic flight data up to 75 minutes before it crashed, indicating that the flight crew lost a degree of flight control. However, the unusual nature of the data also points towards GPS spoofing in the flight’s early stages, further muddying the waters.
Photo: Flightradar24
According to Flightradar24’s blog, valid ADS-B data was received from the aircraft once it took off from Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) from 03:55 UTC until 04:25. However, at this point, the plane appears to have encountered GPS interference as it did not transmit any data between 04:25 and 04:37, and its subsequent data was highly unusual.
|
Time |
Altitude (ft) |
Vertical Speed (fpm) |
Ground Speed (kts) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
04:25 |
30,000 |
0 |
402 |
|
04:37 |
14,025 |
-1,344 |
52 |
|
04:40 |
8,950 |
-1,984 |
52 |
Data shows the aircraft at a typical cruising altitude of 30,000ft at 04:25, with a ground speed of around 400 kt. However, 12 minutes later, it showed an altitude of 14,025ft and a ground speed of just 52 kts. Subsequently, there were significant gaps in data up until 05:13, while the data until 06:07 lacked positional information.
Photo: Flightradar24
While not officially confirmed at this point, it looks increasingly likely that the aircraft was damaged by anti-aircraft weaponry, as shown in images and videos of the plane’s tail after the crash.
ADS-B data shows the aircraft’s altitude was oscillating for almost 75 minutes before the crash, repeatedly fluctuating by up to ±8,000 feet at times. Additionally, its vertical speed and ground speed were also highly erratic. This points towards a loss of primary flight controls, with pilots instead using engine thrust to control the plane. Below is a snapshot of some of the data at different times:
|
Time |
Altitude (ft) |
Vertical Speed (fpm) |
Ground Speed (kts) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
06:10 |
1,625 |
+4,800 |
245 |
|
06:13 |
1,000 |
-3,264 |
268 |
|
06:13 |
750 |
+1,216 |
273 |
|
06:13 |
1,275 |
+2,368 |
232 |
|
06:24 |
1,050 |
+3,392 |
138 |
|
06:24 |
950 |
-3,456 |
141 |
|
06:24 |
500 |
-960 |
174 |
|
06:24 |
650 |
+1,984 |
159 |
The investigation continues
Kazakhstan’s senate chairman, Ashimbayev Maulen, has said all countries involved have “no interest in hiding information” and will cooperate with investigations into the cause of the crash. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has ordered a commission to investigate and warned that “the matter must be thoroughly investigated.”
Multiple videos and images of the plane – including from inside the cabin while it was still flying – support the idea that the plane was hit by something, likely shrapnel from an anti-aircraft weapon designed to down drones. In the clip above, a female passenger is said to have sustained leg injuries from shrapnel, and a hole in the fuselage is clearly visible.
According to Azerbaijan Airlines, the aircraft had failed to land in Grozny due to dense fog and then diverted. A surviving passenger told the BBC that during a third attempt at landing in Grozny, “something exploded… some of the aircraft skin had blown out.” Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier today that it “would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses before the investigation’s conclusions.”