Aktau plane crash. Kazakhstan publishes preliminary report showing damage to plane by foreign elements

Author:
Olha Bereziuk
Date:

The Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan has published a preliminary report on the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane near the city of Aktau.

The document noted that an initial inspection of the aircraft fragments after the crash revealed “numerous through and through damage of various sizes and shapes” in the tail section, on the left engine and on the left wing. In some places, the damage has a regular rectangular shape.

Specialists removed a significant number of foreign objects from the aircraft and sent them for additional examination.

The report also contains an excerpt from the recording of the pilotsʼ conversations with controllers and inside the cockpit. These conversations indicate that the planeʼs GPS sensors stopped working over Grozny. The pilots received permission to land in Grozny, but were unable to land the plane.

At around 05:13, the flight recorders recorded two “sonic booms.” The autopilot and other systems were turned off, pressure began to drop, and the cabin began to depressurize. The pilots thought that birds had entered the plane.

The report quotes a flight attendant as saying that “two seats exploded” in the cabin. Judging by the conversation with the controllers, the pilots decided that it was oxygen cylinders that had exploded.

The pilots wanted to try to land in Mineralnye Vody, Baku, or Makhachkala, but after consulting with the weather forecaster, they decided to land in Aktau.

What preceded

The plane crash occurred in Kazakhstan on the morning of December 25. The Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Russia, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau.

There were 67 people on board the plane, including five crew members. 38 people died in the crash.

According to Euronews sources in the Azerbaijani government, the cause of the plane crash was a Russian surface-to-air missile. The missile was allegedly launched from flight J2-8432 during drone activity over Grozny. The missile exploded during the flight, and its fragments hit the plane.

On December 27, Azerbaijan Airlines stated that, initially, the cause of the crash was "physical and technical external influence".

On December 28, Putin apologized for the "tragic incident" with the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, but did not directly take responsibility for the disaster.

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