Emergency specialists work on the crash web site of an Azerbaijan Airways passenger jet close to the western Kazakh metropolis of Aktau on December 25, 2024.
Issa Tazhenbayev | Afp | Getty Pictures
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated on Sunday {that a} passenger aircraft that crashed
final week, killing 38 individuals, had been broken by capturing from the bottom in Russia, and he stated some in Russia had lied about the reason for the catastrophe.
President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Aliyev for Wednesday’s “tragic incident” in Russian airspace involving the aircraft after Russian air defenses engaged Ukrainian assault drones. A Kremlin assertion didn’t say Russia had shot down the aircraft, solely noting a legal case had been opened.
“Our aircraft was shot down by chance,” Aliyev informed state tv on Sunday, including that the aircraft had come below some form of digital jamming and had then been shot at whereas it was approaching the southern Russian metropolis of Grozny.
“Sadly, within the first three days we heard solely absurd variations from Russia,” Aliyev stated, citing statements in Russia that attributed the crash to birds or the explosion of some form of fuel cylinder.
“We witnessed clear makes an attempt to cowl up the matter,” stated the Azerbaijani chief, who has shut ties to Russia and was educated at one among Moscow’s prime universities.
Aliyev stated he wished Russia to just accept it was responsible of downing the aircraft and punish these liable for fatally damaging the plane.
Azerbaijan Airways Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fireplace close to town of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia the place Ukrainian drones have been attacking a number of cities.
The extraordinarily uncommon publicized apology from Putin on Saturday is the closest Moscow has come to accepting some blame for the catastrophe.
4 sources with information of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan’s investigation into the catastrophe informed Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot it down.
Burials
Earlier on Sunday, Azerbaijan paid tribute to the pilots and passengers of the aircraft.
Captain Igor Kshnyakin and co-pilot Alexander Kalyaninov, each ethnic Russians with Azerbaijan citizenship, and Hokuma Aliyeva, a flight attendant, got full honors at a ceremony on the Alley of Honour in central Baku attended by Aliyev and his spouse, Mehriban.
The pilots have been lauded in Azerbaijan for touchdown in a approach which allowed 29 individuals to outlive however led to their very own deaths.
The Embraer passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya area, earlier than veering off a whole lot of miles throughout the Caspian Sea.
Azerbaijan’s presidential workplace stated that after the yet-to-be defined incident over Russian airspace, the pilots battled to regulate the aircraft — desperately looking for a touchdown spot.
With holes within the fuselage, some crew injured, passengers praying for his or her lives in a de-pressurized cabin and the aircraft spiraling uncontrolled, the pilots flew throughout the Caspian Sea in direction of their loss of life in a crash touchdown.
“Solely by the braveness and professionalism of the pilots was an emergency touchdown efficiently carried out,” Azerbaijan’s presidential workplace stated.
The Alley of Honour is Azerbaijan’s most sacred fashionable burial floor — the place distinguished politicians, poets and scientists are laid to relaxation, together with Heydar Aliyev, the late father of the present president.
Captain Kshnyakin’s daughter, Anastasia Kshnyakina, stated her father was a devoted pilot who took his duties to his passengers extraordinarily critically.
“My father all the time stated: After I take off, I’m accountable not just for my life, but in addition for the lives of all passengers and crew members,” Kshnyakina stated.
“Together with his final flight, he proved what a real hero ought to be.”
