An Azerbaijani passenger plane that crashed in December after being diverted from Russia to Kazakhstan had suffered damage “probably caused by external objects,” according to a preliminary report published on a Kazakh government website on Tuesday.
Thirty-eight people were killed when the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane crashed on Dec. 25 near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting across the Caspian Sea from southern Russia.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in December the plane had been damaged by accidental shooting from the ground in Russia. Moscow has not confirmed this.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had issued a rare apology to Aliyev for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace. But a Kremlin statement did not say Russia had fired at the plane, only noting that a criminal case had been opened.
The plane had been flying from Baku to Grozny in southern Russia, where the Kremlin said Ukrainian drones had been attacking several cities at the time.
Tuesday’s report, posted on the website of the Kazakh Transport Ministry, said damage to the aircraft included its hydraulic system.
Photographs showed the port side of the tail section was riddled with holes. Also pictured in the report were small fragments that it described as “foreign metal objects” removed from the left stabiliser and hydraulic system of the plane.
“To determine the nature and origin of the puncture damage caused by foreign objects, appropriate studies and examinations will be carried out,” the report said.
Twenty-nine people survived the crash-landing in Kazakhstan. Aliyev has hailed the pilots, who died, as national heroes. The Azerbaijani leader has said that blame lies with Russian individuals, and that Baku demands justice.
Russia says it has assigned its own investigation to the most experienced experts and that actions are being taken to establish the cause and circumstances of the incident.
After the crash, the plane’s black box flight recorders were sent to be examined in Brazil, where the Embraer E190 passenger jet was manufactured.
Reuters
