An Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku to the Chechnyan city of Grozny crashed Wednesday, killing 38. The plane flew hundreds of miles off its route and crashed on the wrong side of the Caspian Sea in Aktau, Kazakhstan, with 29 survivors currently being treated at a nearby hospital. Russian officials initially blamed the crash on a bird strike, Reuters reports, although other aviation experts aren’t so sure.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said information he had seen suggested the plane changed course because of bad weather but insisted the crash must be fully investigated. “This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people,” he said.
Video taken of the crash showed the plane’s altitude dropping rapidly before it became engulfed in flames and hit the shore. A large section of the plane’s body stayed intact in the crash, and surviving passengers can be seen crawling from the wreck. The video also shows holes in the side of the plane that appear much more consistent with shrapnel or bullet strikes than the offered explanation from Russian state media of a bird strike, CNN reports.
That would track with Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation head Andriy Kovalenko’s assertion that the flight was “shot down by a Russian air defense system.” Ukrainian drone strikes in the area also recently shut down the closest airport. Russia, however, said speculating about the cause of the crash would be wrong and that we should wait on the results of the investigation. Maulen Ashimbayev, chairman of Kazakhstan’s senate, has said that “the nature of these damages and the causes of the disaster are currently unknown.”
A commission has been formed with representatives from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Russia, although Kanat Bozumbayev, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister, warned that it will take time, saying that “even the preliminary cause cannot be determined yet, as specialists are needed for that.” However, he said he is optimistic, stating, “They will conduct the work, and then it will be clear.”