Azerbaijan Airways Flight 8432, which crashed whereas trying an emergency touchdown close to Aktau, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, was hit by a Russian surface-to-air missile, Azerbaijani authorities sources confirmed on Thursday.
The missile, fired throughout drone exercise over Grozny, struck the plane mid-flight, inflicting shrapnel to hit passengers and cabin crew. Regardless of the pilots’ requests for an emergency touchdown, the plane was denied permission to land at any Russian airport and was ordered to fly throughout the Caspian Sea in direction of Aktau.
Sources revealed that the plane’s GPS navigation methods had been jammed through the flight, additional complicating the scenario. The missile was launched from a Pantsir-S air defence system, in response to Baku-based outlet AnewZ.
Russian sources confirmed that on the time of the incident, air defence forces had been engaged in an try and shoot down Ukrainian UAVs over Chechnya. Chechen officers confirmed a drone assault over Grozny that morning however reported no casualties or harm.
If these preliminary findings are confirmed, the incident would mark the second time in a decade that Russian forces have downed a industrial plane, following the 2014 MH17 catastrophe in Ukraine. The crash additionally claimed the lives of Russian residents and nationals from neighbouring international locations.
The investigation into the crash is ongoing, with authorities anticipated to look at the circumstances surrounding the missile assault, the denial of touchdown at Russian airports, and the compelled rerouting of the airplane with harm.