Azerbaijan Airlines crash: At least one loud bang heard before plane went down, say passengers
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At least 38 people were killed while 29 people survived after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed in Kazakhstan.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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BAKU - Two passengers on the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan told Reuters that they heard at least one loud bang as it approached its original destination of Grozny in southern Russia.
Flight J2-8243 crashed on Dec 25 in a ball of fire
At least 38 people were killed while 29 people survived.
“After the bang... I thought the plane was going to fall apart,” Mr Subhonkul Rakhimov, one of the passengers, told Reuters from hospital, adding that he had begun to recite prayers and prepare for the end after hearing the bang.
“It was obvious that the plane had been damaged in some way,” he said. “It was as if it was drunk – not the same plane anymore.”
Another passenger on the plane said that she also heard a loud bang.
“I was very scared,” said Ms Vafa Shabanova, adding that there was also a second bang. She was then told by a flight attendant to move to the back of the plane.
Both passengers said there appeared to be a problem with the oxygen levels in the cabin after the bang.
Mr Subhonkul Rakhimov said he had begun to recite prayers and prepare for the end after hearing a loud bang.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Beyond the horror of the crash, the first-person narratives from the passengers give an insight into what may have caused the disaster.
Russia has said it is important to wait for the official investigation to finish its work to understand what happened.
Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan’s investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Dec 26 that Russian air defences had mistakenly shot down the plane.
Azerbaijan Airlines said it considered the crash was caused by what it termed “physical and technical external interference”. It did not detail what that interference was. The carrier said on Dec 27 that it is suspending services to five additional Russian destinations, after earlier pausing flights to Grozny and Makhachkala.
Drone war
The Embraer passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku towards Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.
It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian after what Russia’s aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
Footage shot by passengers on the plane before it crashed showed oxygen masks down and people wearing life vests. Later footage showed bloodied and bruised passengers climbing out of the plane.
After the turmoil of the crash landing, there was silence before the moaning of the injured began, Mr Rakhimov said.
The crash has underscored the risks to civil aviation even when planes are flying hundreds of kilometres from a war zone, especially when a major drone war is under way.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane got into trouble near Grozny, which is more than 850km from the front lines in Ukraine but still a repeated target for Ukrainian drones which have struck far behind Russian lines.
Russia uses advanced electronic jamming equipment to confuse Ukrainian drone location and communication systems and a large number of air defence systems to shoot down the drones.
Since Russia sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, airlines have flown around Ukraine, and Russia has closed major airports in south-western Russia.
The head of Russia’s civil aviation agency Dmitry Yadrov said on Dec 27 that Ukrainian drones were attacking the city of Grozny as the Azerbaijani Airlines plane was trying to land there, before it later crashed in Kazakhstan.
On messaging platform Telegram, Mr Yadrov said Ukrainian military drones were “carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure” at the time, adding that the plane made two unsuccessful attempts to land.
“The pilot was offered alternative airports. He took the decision to go to Aktau airport” in Kazakhstan, he said.
He added that there was heavy fog over Grozny when the incident occurred and “conditions that day and in those hours around the airport were very complicated”.
Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said on Dec 27 that it would provide comprehensive support to Kazakh and Azerbaijani investigations looking into the crash.
Asked about reports that Russian air defences had mistakenly shot down the aircraft,
