Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan suspend flights to Russia after plane crash

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The national airlines of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have suspended some flights to Russia after evidence that an Azerbaijani plane was shot down by Russian air defense systems.

Kazakh airline, Kazakh Air, said on Friday that it has suspended its Astana-Ekaterinburg route, according to Cousinform news agencywhile Azerbaijan Airlines suspended flights to seven cities in southern Russia.

The move came after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku to the Russian regional capital of Grozny crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday after crossing the Caspian Sea, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

Video of the crashed plane’s fuselage showed multiple puncture marks consistent with fire from an anti-aircraft system. There is also evidence that Russia was jamming GPS navigation systems near Grozny at the time, apparently to protect against Ukrainian drone attacks.

Kazakh Air said it had suspended flights to Ekaterinburg until January 27 pending an “ongoing risk assessment” of Russian flights. Azerbaijan Airlines said it had suspended flights to Grozny and other southern Russian cities until an investigation into the crash was completed.

IsraelIts flag-carrier, El Al, also announced Thursday that it was suspending flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow pending a security assessment.

Russia insisted that the plane could not land in Grozny because of thick fog and that the plane had hit a flock of birds. Local authorities in Russia’s neighboring North Ossetia region announced an attack by Ukrainian drones, one of which was shot down, killing a woman on the ground. But the Kommersant newspaper reported that there was no “dense fog” forecast for Grozny at the time.

The head of Russia’s Rosavietsia aviation agency, Dmitry Yadrov, said on Thursday that the situation around Grozny was “very difficult” amid Ukraine’s war drone attacks.

Asked about the missile attack report on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had nothing to add.

The incident drew comparisons to the 2014 shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine. an investigation Conclusion The crash, which killed 298 people on board, was the result of an anti-aircraft missile being fired by Russian-controlled fighters in eastern Ukraine.

It is unclear how long Kazakhstan’s investigation into the accident will take, or how free it will be to reach conclusions about the cause. Includes investigators from investigations Russia and Azerbaijan, according to Kazakh officials.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said it was too early to comment on what caused the crash.

The type of aircraft involved – an Embraer-190 regional jet – was previously considered one of the safest civilian aircraft in the world.

A senior US official said there were early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft system hit the flight.

Senior Ukrainian officials to say The Financial Times also said they believed the plane was likely hit by an air defense missile. Andriy Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, posted on Telegram on Thursday that Russia should have closed Grozny’s airspace, given the operation it was conducting, but did not.

“The plane was damaged by the Russians and sent to Kazakhstan instead of making an emergency landing in Grozny and saving lives,” he wrote.

Azerbaijan MP Rasim Musabekov called on Russia to apologise.

“The plane was shot down on Russian territory, in the airspace of Grozny, and it cannot be denied,” Musabekov told Turan news agency. “This is how civilized relations work. If air defense systems are active, the airport should be closed and warnings should be issued to prevent flights in the area.”