Commercial aviation is incredibly safe, and there are often long periods of time where we don’t see any fatal accidents. Unfortunately yesterday wasn’t one of those days, as an Azerbaijan Airlines jet bound for Russia diverted to Kazakhstan, where it crashed, killing dozens.
Continue reading: Azerbaijan Airlines Jet Crashes In Kazakhstan, Downed By Russia
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"However, due to fog in the area, the jet wasn’t able to land there"
Odd, because the airport was never closed and conditions were acceptable for other planes. What is your source for this statement?
On YouTube, see the blancolirio channel, by an American commercial airline pilot, which references the channel of Denys Davidov, a former Ukrainian commercial pilot who now comments daily on the Ukrainian war. There is no question that the plane was shot down.
It would appear that there was a depressurisation due to the oxygen masks being deployed - I think we can assume that there was something that’s hit the aircraft causing structural damage to the exterior of the aircraft
Likely another inside job / false flag attack from Zionist extremists. Sad for all the families who lost loved ones due to senseless violent attacks such as this.
The funny thing is that when I was watching some video sites the netizens were blaming Boeing 🙁
Not the first commercial plane that Russia takes down . Putin never pays for all the crimes he commits typical dictator
Easy. Russians thought "oh flying thing! ya lets shoot it down!! Oh wait... that's not a drone that's a plane. AH, let's just shoot it down anyway!" Another question is why was this plane going to originally land where a drone strike had occurred?? Azerbaijian airlines should have stopped flights there
Of course, it was Russia. They have proven to be so inept. Before they invaded Ukraine, they were thought to be well-trained and the second-best army in the world. Their incompetence shows them to barely be the second-best army in Ukraine.
It was just a matter of time. Drones sharing airspace with passenger airplanes, air defenses shooting at those drones… what can possibly go wrong? All airlines flying to Russia or through Russian airspace west of the Urals are risking their passengers’ lives. As Ukraine increases drones production and use, the risk will grow.
Without discounting that this may be true, I wouldn’t use Visegrad for a source. They’re well known as a far-right propaganda account.
The risk to global aviation is significant because this is in one of the few areas where western airlines can fly from Europe to Asia.
Although this flight was flying to Russia and was below cruising altitude, the borders are very close in that region.
I refuse to be told it was shot down by Russia according to Ukrainian authorities just moments after the crash. It was likely Ukrainian terrorists .
It is really safer for us flying commoner seating in the back close to smelly restroom when it comes to surviving aircraft crash. I feel sorry for those who ask for upgrade with extra legroom infront on this particular flight.
Those Embraers are built like tanks. i’m amazed they were able to fly so long after taking hits like that. RIP to the deceased
Ukrainian terrorists able to shoot at a plane flying between Azerbaijan and Russia? How do you even believe this rubbish?!
It’s trigger happy Russian troops (likely the TikTok brigade being as it was Chechnya).
Even after the end of the Russia/Ukraine war, it will be a long time before I would be comfortable flying on a US (or other “western”) airline over Russian territory… Even a diversion to a Russian airport would be too risky
Those "Ukrainian terrorists" you mention are mostly backed by Russia.
Even I'm not denying that.
Or maybe if you consider the Ukrainian armed force itself to be a terrorrist, then maybe "beggar" is a more fitting term.
Russian government always denies and fabricates everything. The fell off a balcony complex.
Look at the Salisbury poisonings. Of course they denied it even though there is conclusive evidence.
Lucky, I’m a huge fan but if you choose to write about an event that took place in a war zone, you should probably try harder to avoid repeating Russian disinformation about fog, birds and whatever other nonsense they will come up with. This is your 3rd edition of this article and it’s still full of inaccuracies. This requires more precision than Etihad reducing partner availability.
On a related note, El Al just suspended all flights to Moscow for a week to reevaluate safety.
The real news here (in addition to Russia damaging a civilian airliner and then forcing it to fly across the sea in an apparent hope that it crashes there and no trace will remain) is that many airlines are ignoring the safety concerns and continue flying to airports that regularly have to close due to drone and/or missile attacks by Ukraine.
To avoid any ambiguity, Ukraine has every right to hit the targets it attempts to hit. It’s the airlines that are in the wrong here.
I always thought aircraft were identified on missle defence radar as “Friend or Foe”, this enabled the operators to engage or ignore targets, that’s what I read many years ago anyway but things may have changed with the use of drones etc.
A poorly trained Russian military with shoddy systems and idiots at the helm have now downed two commercial aircraft in a few years (not to mention KAL in the 80's). Anyone who uses an airline that goes over Russian airspace is, at this point, taking huge risks. I simply will not fly any of the ME 3, or other airlines that are allowed, on routings that routinely use this airspace.
As Anthony said below, it's also just a matter of time before one of these aircraft flying over Russia is forced to divert with American, British or EU passport holders on board. Russia will then have a few more people they can detain for questioning and fake trials to later use for prisoner swaps.
What a disaster to themselves and to the world that country has become.
The fact that whoever successfully shot the plane down actually hit their intended target is the strongest argument that it was not Russia.
There have been quite a number of airliners shot down over the years:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airliner_shootdown_incidents
Probably Russia, but recall the US has supplied thousands of Stinger missiles to Ukraine. Giving a few to jihadis and getting them into Russia would not be surprising (cf Crocus City and several prominent assassinations).
It seems there is a lot of damage on the horizontal stabilizers, elevators, and the tail fin with what seems to be shrapnel damage. I remember from the JAL 123 crash investigation that for the 747, all of the hydraulic lines flew through the tail which were damaged when the bulkhead failed and sent debris throughout the plane. The shrapnel-like damage on this E190 seems to be significant enough where I assume it likely hit some of the hydraulic lines. The question for me is to what extent the aircraft was still controllable, and how many hydraulic lines were still functional after the impact of the anti-aircraft fire. The fact that the plane made it to its destination and crashed just short of it suggests to me that the pilots may have had some control. Either that, or the plane was basically uncontrollable and yet the pilots still managed to get it to Aktau, which would be incredible piloting (which they did regardless it seems)!
I just saw a video on ABC news of the plane slightly before impact (before the clip of the plane making impact), and to me it looked like the E190 was in a phugoid motion, where it pitches up and climbs slightly, and then pitches down and descends. That is typically indicative of a plane which isn't getting much input from the cockpit controls, which to me shows the pilots had limited control over the plane. At least that's my two cents.
May the deceased rest in peace, and may those injured make a full recovery. I pray for all those involved in this tragedy and their loved ones.
Of course it was the Russians. They shoot down (or blow up) civil aircraft all the time, and think nothing of it. Just another day at the never-ending lie-factory for them. Nobody should be surprised by this - Russia isn't a country, it's just a mafia with nuclear weapons. Russia is a nation of liars, cheats, thieves, scumbags and mafia thugs, nothing more. They are the source of most of the world's troubles. It'll be a great day when all Russian cities are reduced to smoking craters. Can't wait for that day to come.
Watch the video Ben provided by the pilot going through the entire scenario. They were never stable. Over the Caspian Sea they were struggling to control the aircraft constantly.
Only some masks were deployed. That wouldn't happen in actual depressurisation. The reason why they're "deployed" in the pics is simply them falling out during a hit or some sudden movement. That happens quite often, e.g. you can see similar pics from severe turbulence incidents.
They appear to have been hit on approach to Grozny (Chechnya), though we need to wait for that to be confirmed. The rest of the sequence of events are also pretty hazy at this point, but will all come out. That said, Grozny is well within Russian airspace with something like 30-40 miles separating it from the Azerbaijani border (which runs along the ridges of the Caucus Mountains). This doesn't seem to be much of a threat beyond Russia and whichever neighboring country it's victimizing this week.
I said this on another travel blog the moment I read of it. Was pretty obvious to me.
There is now a passenger perspective clip circulating from inside the cabin prior to the crash, seems calm and level;
Define "Ukrainian terrorists". As far as I know, there aren't any. Is that like the "Ukrainian fascist government" that your friends in Moscow claim is in Kyiv?
Russia was simply demonstrating their air defense capabilities. With their horrible showing in Ukraine so far, they had to demonstrate to potential weapon buyers that they can shoot SOMETHING/ANYTHING down, It's shameful that they had to use a civilian airplane for a demonstration. They should've used Pootin's personal aircraft.
you assume that everything works as planned when using weapons esp. in a war setting. It clearly doesn't. 30-40 miles isn't much of a buffer should things go wrong.
and the risk is that this area is a chokepoint and one of the few remaining routes between Europe and Asia for western airlines as a result of Russian, Afghanistan as well as Iranian civilian overflight prohibitions that some if not many countries follow.
It's a fact that Russian air defenses doesn't have the capability to shoot down military targets. The Russian operator aimed at this civilian target to show the world that they can hit SOMETHING at all.
Dear Americosy :),
Again you got all wrong. There are no Russians in the Chechnya air defence forces but Chechens, although Russians citizens. That is a huge difference based on race, native language, religion and last but not least, lifestyle.
Let me tell you the upcoming official version: A Nazi-Ukraine in co-operation with Western partners created in a secret biolaboratory in undiscloused locaton in Ukraine black crows with iron beaks. A flock of those birds was sent to attack foreign passenger airplanes next to the border of the Russian Federation to take them down to blame Russian peaceful air defence forces for such a unimaginable act. As the whole World can see in the pictures, the size and a structure of the damages in the airplane wings and body area are matched with the structure of the iron beaks of those birds. Unfortunately, our defence troops could not capture any of those spieces, all birds survived and returned to their base of location. With that statement we will close permanently the investigation about that accident. No further comments will be made in the future.
Let's not forget when our warship shot down an airliner inside their own airspace.
We even gave the captain a medal.
If shooting modern civilian airliners were an Olympic sport from say, oh I don't know...maybe 1983 onwards (completely random date), only one nation would be in serious contention.
When #upstater's reasonable reality check encounters your bias you tell him/her to 'piss off'! Mmmmm. Do you have information nobody else has to be definite about cause?
Netanyahu and Gallant also can escape for free! And Bush 2, Clinton, Obama, Biden plus Nixon, Johnson, JFK? Not only 'dictators' commit crimes. Thanks for admitting these guys are all war criminals.
"Ukraine has every right to hit the targets it attempts to hit. It’s the airlines that are in the wrong here."
What a fascist way of thinking.
While you're at it, do you think it's ok to kill Red Cross people in a warzone because they're wrong to be in a warzone?
Then mistaken a blog as a factual source of information for 3 times.
The record single most casualty event to date is still in 1988.
They literally got a medal for that.
Before I go on, let me say that I live in the States, and have no affiliation or inclination toward either Ukraine or Russia, two peoples who have been at each other's throats for centuries.
But I think Russia has been treated awfully bad for an awfully long time, and I'm glad to see that not all commenters here have fallen for the anti-Russia slanting from the elites and from the established media.
That all said, Russia should probably have closed the civilian airspace over Chechnya due to their defense campaign against Ukrainian drones at the time. Kudos to the captain of the Azerbaijani flight who flew the aircraft for as long as they did. And while most pax fortunately survived, RIP to those who did not.
When you say a nation of liars, cheats, thieves, scumbags and mafia thugs, to me it seems like you are talking about the USA?
I'm not Russian, nor have any affiliation to them, and what they did is wrong, but all this seems very hypocritical, just like pretty much anything that comes out of an American politicians mouth these days and in the past. And lets not forget the USA has also taken down an Iranian civilian aircraft and the person got a meddle for it without any consequences. So they are just as bad if not worse in my eyes
As an EU passport holder with no ties to Russia, I can assure you that EU citizens can travel to Russia with an E-visa without problems. US and UK citizens can still travel to Russia with a visa (and you can easily find on YouTube videos of Americans living in Russia). Russians citizens can also still get visas to travel to the EU, US and UK. Regarding your point about flight diversions, since the beginning of the war there’s been at least one Air India flight to the US that had to do an emergency landing in Siberia (OMAAT reported on it). All the passengers (including US citizens) were let on the ground, allowed to stay overnight, not arrested, and continued their journey after the issue with the plane was fixed. There have been questionable arrests of US/EU citizens in Russia but they were double citizens. Then if you refer to the basketball player who was arrested, she was carrying drugs. Her arrest was obviously used for political ends, but she broke the law in the first place. With all this I don’t want to say that traveling to Russia is risk free, but your comment shows a clear lack of awareness.
Good that the brave pilots attempted to land in another country. Can you imagine if they crashed in Russia , or at sea. The Russians will simply cover-it up..and blame the pilots. End of.
Sorry Russia has been treated so badly for invading a sovereign nation, kidnapping children and refusing to return them, causing millions to flee their homes and murdering thousands. If you are Russian and don’t support the government, you may accidentally fall off a balcony.
In your second paragraph you are telling is that you actually support the Russian government.
"most pax fortunately survived,"
How much does Putin pay you to make up such lies? Or do you just mean most Russian pax survived, and who cares about the rest?
So many stupid comments prior to any results of investigation.
Responsibility of the airline for what happens is obvious.
Also pilot should land at the nearby airport- no 1 can prevent airplane landing
@Marco
Even 3 years ago I would have agreed with you, much to my chagrin, but Russia's unjustified invasion of Ukraine and the Russian military's behavior towards civilians and POWs shows they are a morally bankrupt regime that only understands force. They could quite literally have just gotten rich off selling gas for the past two decades like the Saudis, but instead they invade their weaker neighbors and use WWII "paranoia" to justify it. Even after their invasion of Georgia, Obama tried to normalize relations with them and treat them as a civilized country. We can obviously see looking back at 2014 and 2022 that that was a mistake, and the only way to keep Russia from invading its neighbors is NATO and replying with action when they do crap like cutting undersea cables, poison enemies of the Russian state on foreign soil, or launch cyberattacks against non-belligerent nations.
@Eskimo
>What a fascist way of thinking.
Actually, the country under attack does have the right and moral high ground to hit military targets inside the invading country, no matter where they are in that country. Last I checked it was Russia, not Ukraine, that routinely hit hospitals, residential blocks, and Red Cross/other NGO aid organizations anyways.
Just found one stupid comment.
Pilot probably avoided the nearby airport because weapons are being used making it unsafe.
You're absolutely right.
I forgot the part that the pilot knows the exact location of every air defense and their range and capabilities and how to safely avoid them, after being shot!?!
Also the part that E190 is equipped with advance GPS jamming countermeasures and knows it's own location with 2.5 feet precision.
But most importantly all the daily sim training on handing an airliner shot by military weapons.
Tbilisi was near-by- indeed.
@Eskimo
If you're going to hate on the US as compared to freaking Russia, at least get your numbers correct. IR655 resulted in 290 fatalities. MH17 resulted in 298. Russia also takes 3rd place with KE007, causing 269 fatalities. And the Russian government has neither apologized or given any kind of restitution for the MH17 shootdown, whereas the USA paid compensation to the victims of IR655 and bought Iran a pair of new A330s, despite Iran being one of the two aggressors the US was defending civilian shipping against. I'd love to see you square this to Russia shooting down MH17 during a proxy war they themselves initiated.
I'll also point out that nobody on the Vincennes got a medal for the shootdown. They got the typical end-of-tour combat awards because they were in combat with Iranian and Iraqi military forces that were attacking neutral civilian shipping.
"The captain said that he was advised to land the plane at sea, but he decided to set a course for Aktau and land it on the ground," a flight attendant told Reuters.
That would have made it more difficult to find the shrapnel holes.
We publish the transcript of the crew (e) and the controller (d) in full:
08:11:50
e: AXY8243 proceeding to Baku.
08:11:58
d: AXY8243 with current heading, climb to 900m
e: With current heading, climb to 900m AXY8243
08:12:12
d: AXY8243 confirm, are you going to Baku as an alternate?
e: Confirm, we are going to Baku as an alternate AXY8243
08:12:29
d: AXY8243 initially dial FL80, and tell me if you can proceed directly to Pinta?
e: Dial FL80, we'll prompt you now AXY8243
08:12:48
e: AXY8243 both GPS lost, need vectoring.
d: AXY8243 copy, right course 360.
e: Right course 360 AXY8243 thank you.
08:14:15
d: AXY8243 dial FL150
e: Dial FL150 (unintelligible) AXY8243
d: AXY8243 and speed up the climb
e: Speeding up the climb AXY8243
.....
08:16:05
e: Our controls failed, bird strike in the cockpit. Bird strike in the cockpit (inaudible)
08:16:16
d: AXY8243 do you understand, what assistance do you need?
08:16:41
e: What is the weather like in Min-Vody, please provide assistance.
d: AXY8243 at 16 minutes.
e: I do not understand
d: AXY8243 at 16 minutes.
e: What at 16 minutes?
d: AXY8243 repeat your message, I can't hear you well.
08:17:15
d: AXY8243 is the aircraft okay?
e: Aircraft okay, proceeding to Min-Vody.
d: AXY8243 do you understand, proceed with the current course until command.
e: Understood, proceed with the current course until command. Please, request bad weather Min-Vody.
d: AXY8243 standby, climb to FL150.
e: Climbing to FL150.
08:18:29
d: AXY8243 execute left orbit.
e: Can't execute, control is lost. Give us vectoring to Min-Vody, and please give us Min-Vody weather.
d: AXY8243 roger, standby. Left heading 030
e: Left heading 030
08:19:12
e: I can't maintain 150, we have increased cabin pressure
d: AXY8243 roger.
08:20:27
d: AXY8243 left heading 360
e: Left 360, my aircraft is losing control.
d: AXY8243 for information weather Min-Vody: wind 120 degrees, 6 m/s, visibility over 10 km, solid cloud cover lower edge 180 m, QNH1024 hPa, band in operation 11
e: Give us Makhachkala.
08:21:20
e: And Makhachkala.
d: AXY8243 decided to go to Makhachkala?
e: Yes sir, give us weather for Makhachkala.
d: AXY8243 wait.
08:22:12
d: AXY8243 turn right course 110.
d: AXY8243 Grozny Tower.
e: On reception
d: AXY8243 starboard course 140.
08:22:57
e: Now hydraulics have failed
08:23:03
d AXY8243 Grozny Tower.
e: On reception, our hydraulics have failed.
d: AXY8243 understood. Can you follow the courses?
e: No, we can't follow them. Give us a specific course, we'll go to Makhachkala.
d: AXY8243 left course 100, correction to the right course 100.
e: Right course 100. Makhachkala weather.
08:23:42
d: AXY8243 Makhachkala weather: wind 310 degrees 2 m/s, visibility 3300, base 750 m, haze QNH1026 hPa, band in operation 32
er: Got it
08:24:26
d: AXY8243 confirm, have you declared a distress?
er: (Unintelligible) I don't understand (unintelligible)
08:24:43
er: AXY8243 repeat.
d: AXY8243 is the aircraft okay?
er: The aircraft is okay.
08:24:55
E: Permit us (inaudible)
D: AXY8243 repeat
E: (inaudible)
08:25:09
D: AXY8243 you are unintelligible, repeat your message.
E: (inaudible)
08:25:30
E: AXY8243 how did you receive us? On reception
D: AXY8243 Grozny Tower on reception, we can't hear you very well.
E: (inaudible)
08:25:47
E: AXY8243 Permit us to proceed at this altitude.
D: AXY8243 I don't see you on the control tower, tell me your altitude.
08:26:10
e: Our altitude is 80
d: AXY8243 try to reach FL100
e: If we can.
08:27:00
d: AXY8243 Grozny Tower
e: On reception AXY8243
d: AXY8243 work Rostov Control 134.1
e: Rostov Control 134.1 AXY8243
The crew of the Baku-Grozny flight then negotiated with the dispatcher from Rostov.
Recall that on December 25, an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed near Aktau, flying from Baku to Grozny. There were 67 passengers and 5 crew members on board. Citizens of Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were on board the Embraer-190 that crashed near Aktau. According to the operational headquarters of the Kazakh Ministry of Emergency Situations, 29 people survived, all of them were taken to hospital, including four children. Later, a full list of passengers on the Baku-Grozny flight that crashed in Aktau was published.