Crashed plane

Russian authorities now confirm drone attack

The crashed Azerbaijani plane in Kazakhstan

(Bild: AP/The Administration of Mangystau Region)

Russian authorities commented on the crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane on Friday. Ukrainian combat drones were carrying out attacks at the time of the crash. The plane was therefore unable to land at its destination in Grozny for safety reasons.

"The situation on that day and during those hours in the Grozny airport area was very complicated," said the head of the Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya, Dmitry Yadrov, on Friday. Ukrainian combat drones had carried out attacks in the Grozny and Vladikavkaz areas. 

According to Yadrov, no take-offs and landings were permitted in Grozny due to the danger posed by the drones. All pilots had to leave the airspace during the alert period. It was the first time that an official body had established a temporal connection between a drone alert and the crash on Wednesday.

The wreckage of the plane

(Bild: AP/The Administration of Mangystau Region)

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Issa Tazhenbayev)

Two unsuccessful landing attempts
Yadrov did not say whether the plane may have been damaged by a Russian anti-aircraft missile and then crashed in Kazakhstan after a long flight. This had previously been reported by Azerbaijani government sources. Jadrov said that there had been dense fog in Grozny at the time and that the pilot of the plane had made two unsuccessful attempts to land. He finally turned towards Kazakhstan.

Here you can see the holes in the plane.

The operating company, Azerbaijan Airlines, in turn spoke of an unspecified "external influence" that was responsible for the crash. Initial investigations had shown that the aircraft had been exposed to "extreme physical and technical disturbances", it said on Friday.

Suspicion of accidental downing
The Ukrainian government blamed Russia for the crash. In fact, there is growing evidence that the plane was shot down accidentally. Military bloggers from Russia and Ukraine, but also the White House, Azerbaijani sources and Austria's army colonel Markus Reisner, among others, are pointing this out. It was probably an accidental close hit that damaged the tail of the aircraft, Reisner said. Data had probably been mixed up.

The Azerbaijani plane crashed on Wednesday near the Kazakh city of Aktau on the coast of the Caspian Sea. 38 people on board were killed, 29 others survived, some with serious injuries. Photos of the tail section of the crashed plane show damage that resembles the impact holes of shrapnel from anti-aircraft weapons.