38 people died in Kazakhstan on Wednesday when the Russian government issued a warning against spreading “hypotheses” about the cause of the fall of a Russian-bound customer plane.
Some aircraft experts speculated that the Azerbaijani Airlines aircraft may have been struck by air military systems over the Soviet republic of Chechnya based on film of the ruined fuselage, which appeared to show shrapnel damage.
The helicopter was diverted across the Caspian Sea from Chechnya to northern Kazakhstan before going down near the Kazakh area of Aktau.
Twenty nine of the 67 people on board survived. On Thursday, Azerbaijan observed a national moment of mourning for the accident victims.
President Ilham Aliyev stated on Thursday,” This is a great tragedy that has become a great grief for the Azerbaijani people.”
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:” It would be inappropriate to put forth any assumptions before the prosecution’s conclusions. We, of training, will not do this, and no-one should do this. We need to wait until the research is completed”.
On Wednesday night, the Embraer 190 plane flew out of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The airport said the flight was scheduled to take to Grozny in Chechnya, but the plane was diverted because of the clouds.
A surviving customer claimed that the pilot had attempted to get in Grozny half in thick fog before” some of the plane skin had blown out.”
The plane was redirected to Aktau airport, some 450km ( 280 miles ) to the east. The aircraft appears to be traveling at high speed 3 kilometers ( 1. 9 miles ) short of the runway before igniting itself as it approaches.
The trip data record has been recovered by Kazakh authorities, and an investigation is being conducted. The most probable cause of the collision was reportedly a flock of birds, according to reports from Russian state-controlled TV shortly after the collision.
However, in most cases, the helicopter glides toward the closest airport, according to aviation scientist Richard Aboulafia, according to Reuters news agency. ” You can gain control of the airplane, but you don’t travel wildly of course as a consequence”, he said.
The style of destruction inside and outside the aircraft, according to Justin Crump of Sibylline, suggests that Russian air defense engaged in Grozny perhaps have caused the crash.
If you look at the structure of debris that we see, it looks very similar to an air defense missile’s detonation to the back and the remaining of the aircraft, he told BBC Radio 4.
Specialists in the local Russian provinces of Ingushetia and North Ossetia reported drone strikes on Wednesday night, according to the Reuters news organization.
The mind of Kazakhstan’s republic, Ashimbayev Maulen, stressed that the cause of the accident was still unknown.
” None of these nations- Azerbaijan, Russia or Kazakhstan- is engaged in hiding data. All information may be made available to the public”, he said.
Those on table were generally Iranian citizens, but there were also some individuals from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Video images showed individuals crawling out of the aircraft, some with apparent injuries. According to AFP news agency, 11 patients are receiving extensive care while the injured are receiving medical treatment.
Embraer, a Portuguese company, is a smaller rival to Boeing and Airbus, and has a strong health history.