What we know about the Azerbaijan Airlines crash

On December 25, 38 people died when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which was supposed to land in Russia, crashed in Kazakhstan.

The circumstances surrounding the crash remain unclear, but limited evidence so far suggests that it may have been destroyed by Russian anti-aircraft missiles as it attempted to land in Chechnya.

Here’s what we know about Flight J2-8243.

Early on Christmas Day, Flight J2-8243 took off from Baku Airport, the capital of Azerbaijan. It was the reason for reaching Grozny, the capital of the Russian region of Chechnya.

There were 67 people on the train, and most of them were from Azerbaijan, as well as from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The plane was an Embraer 190, operated by Azerbaijan Airlines.

As the plane approached Grozny, it entered heavy fog, the survivors said.

They describe the pilot trying to land the plane twice during this time.

The survivors say that, on the third flight, they heard a series of explosions hit the plane.

“The third time, something exploded… one of the plane’s skins had exploded,” one told Russian TV.

The airline’s flight attendant, Zulfuqar Asadov, told local media that the strike had “caused panic inside”.

“We tried to calm down [the passengers] down, to settle them. “At that time, I went on strike again, and my arm was injured,” he said.

A video taken by a passenger in the flight showed oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.

Azerbaijan’s Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev said: “Everything [the survivors] without exception he heard three explosions when the plane was over Grozny.”

He said the plane had been interfered with by “external forces” and was damaged internally and externally while trying to land.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has targeted Chechnya and other regions of the Russian Caucasus with drone strikes.

After the crash, Moscow authorities said that such an attack had triggered a plan to close flights over Grozny.

According to local officials, the pilot was shot down by air defenses over a shopping center in Vladikavkaz, near North Ossetia, that morning.

It is unclear whether the closed protocol – known as the “carpet plan” – was implemented before or when Flight J2-8243 was in Russian airspace.

After the incident in Grozny, the plane diverted 450km (280 miles) east to Aktau airport in Kazakhstan.

It is still unclear why it was diverted to the Caspian Sea – a much longer journey than several other options.

Russian aviation authorities said the pilots “were offered other airports”, but chose Aktau.

Data released on the flight tracking website Flight Radar showed the plane making an up-and-down motion as it approached Aktau, before turning around and crashing a few kilometers from the airport.

Footage from the scene shows the plane rapidly descending through the air before hitting the ground and tumbling for several hundred seconds in a ball of fire.

38 people died and 29 survived, some are seriously injured. Interestingly, some survivors were seen walking and crawling out of the wreckage.

The pilots are said to have saved lives by managing to land on the other side of the plane, although they were killed in the crash.

It is believed that most of the survivors were behind him.

Initial reports from Russia indicated that the plane had collided with a flock of birds.

However, aviation experts and some people in Azerbaijan believe that the plane’s GPS was affected by electric shock and damaged by debris from the explosion of Russian air defense systems.

On Friday, White House defense spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the U.S. has “indicators” that Russia was behind the attack, but declined to comment further.

So far, the Azerbaijani government has avoided directly accusing Russia – but Azerbaijani government sources told Reuters that investigations have already identified the weapon that shot down the plane as the Russian Pantsir-S anti-aircraft system.

The Kremlin has so far refused to comment on reports that the plane was shot down by Russian missiles.

“The investigation … is in progress and until conclusions are drawn as a result of the investigation, we do not consider ourselves competent to issue an assessment,” Dmitry Peskov said.

The flight recorders, which contain data to help determine the cause of the crash, were recovered.

Reports in Baku indicate that Russia and Kazakhstan want a commission from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – a regional organization controlled by Russia – to investigate the accident, but Azerbaijan has instead called for an international investigation.

Azerbaijan Airlines and several other airlines have suspended flights to other Russian cities because of the accident.