Date: 2025-01-08 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027824
CENTRAL ASIA
DOWNING OF AZERBAIJAN AIRLINES FLIGHT
Putin apologized for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace, but the Kremlin
did not take responsibility for downing the Azerbaijan Airlines flight.
DOWNING OF AZERBAIJAN AIRLINES FLIGHT
Putin apologized for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace, but the Kremlin
did not take responsibility for downing the Azerbaijan Airlines flight.
A drone view shows emergency specialists working at the crash site of an Azerbaijan
Airlines passenger plane near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, on Christmas Day.
(Azamat Sarsenbayev/Reuters)
Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/28/putin-azerbaijan-airlines-plane-crash-russia/
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
In the 1980s and the 1990s I travelled a lot ... in fact I got to do do work assignments in more than 50 countries around the world ... many in less than stable secutity situations.
I am not at all sure what I should be concluding from this event ... the downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines flight is a major event and what it means is not yet clear. This mst be revisited when more of the facts are available!
Peter Burgess
Putin apologized for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace, but the Kremlin
did not take responsibility for downing the Azerbaijan Airlines flight.
Written by Mary Ilyushina ... Mary Ilyushina, a reporter on the Foreign Desk of The Washington Post, covers Russia and the region. She began her career in independent Russian media before joining CNN’s Moscow bureau as a field producer in 2017. She has been with The Post since 2021. She speaks Russian, English, Ukrainian and Arabic.follow on X@maryilyushina\
Updated December 28, 2024 at 10:01 a.m. EST
Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologized to the leader of Azerbaijan after a passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan for the “tragic incident” that occurred in Russian airspace, the Kremlin said Saturday.
The Kremlin did not take responsibility for downing the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day. The White House said Friday that evidence suggests the plane was brought down by Russia.
Thirty-eight passengers and crew were killed; 29 survived.
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 departed from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, shortly before 8 a.m. local time Wednesday, for Grozny, the capital of Chechnya in Russia. It was diverted from Grozny mid-flight and later crashed near Aktau in southwestern Kazakhstan, about 270 miles east across the Caspian Sea.
The Kremlin said Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev discussed the repeated attempts by the on-schedule plane to land at Grozny airport. Putin said the area had been attacked by Ukrainian drones that activated Russian air defense.
Russian investigators have opened a criminal case, the Kremlin said, into whether there were violations of traffic safety and air transport operation rules. “Primary investigative actions are being carried out; civilian and military specialists are being interrogated,” it said. Russian officials initially blamed crash on weather and a collision with a flock of birds.
“Vladimir Putin apologized in connection with the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace, and once again expressed deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims, wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Kremlin said.
An Azerbaijan Airlines statement on Dec. 27 blamed “interference” for the Christmas Day plane crash that killed 38 people. (Video: Alisa Shodiyev Kaff/The Washington Post)
Before the call, Putin held a session of the Security Council to discuss the “interaction with partners in the Caspian region.”
According to a readout published by the Azerbaijani side, Aliyev noted that the plane “was subjected to external physical and technical impact and completely lost control.” Kanat Bozymbayev, the head of the Kazakh commission probing the crash, said authorities appointed “a comprehensive ballistic, explosive and trace evidence examination” to learn “when the explosion occurred and why.”
Some Azerbaijani lawmakers have pressured Aliyev’s government to “be more principled” in demanding an apology from Moscow and urging Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
Earlier, the Russian flight regulator Rosaviatsia said conditions at Grozny Airport were “complicated” by a Ukrainian drone attack and thick fog, Russian state news agency Tass reported. Security measures required all aircraft to leave the area near Grozny Airport, the agency’s head said.
The United States has “seen some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday. He said the evidence went beyond widely circulated images of the damaged aircraft, but he did not provide details. The U.S. government has offered to assist Kazakh and Azerbaijani officials in the investigation, Kirby said.
Azerbaijan Airlines said Friday preliminary findings showed the plane crashed “due to external physical and technical interference.”
“This is evidenced by the appearance of the plane’s wreckage on the ground and eyewitness testimony,” Azerbaijani Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev said, according to Azerbaijani media. “The type of weapon used for the interference will be established by the investigation.”
Nabiyev said passengers and crew aboard the Embraer 190 aircraft were injured by “various cutting objects” that pierced the fuselage. “The injured Russian citizens also reported hearing three explosions over Grozny,” he said. “According to them, the sounds of explosions could be heard from outside, after which something hit the plane.”
News outlets including Reuters and Turkey’s state-run Anadolu News agency, Citing anonymous Azerbaijani officials, reported Thursday that Azerbaijan’s preliminary findings were that Russian air defenses caused the crash. There has been no official confirmation of the reports from Azerbaijan. The country’s aviation regulator said it would refrain from comment until the results of the investigation are published.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he also spoke to Aliyev and “expressed condolences to him and the people of Azerbaijan regarding the tragic crash.”
“Russia must provide clear explanations and stop spreading disinformation,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X. “Photos and videos clearly show the damage to the aircraft’s fuselage, including punctures and dents, which strongly point to a strike by an air defense missile. We will support Azerbaijan in this situation with all necessary means and call on other countries to assist as well.”
Turkmenistan’s national carrier suspended flights to Moscow for a month. It was the fifth airline to limit routes to Russia over the area where the Azerbaijan Airlines plane had been impacted.
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