On Wednesday, December 25, an Embraer 190 commercial flight crashed outside of Aktau while en route to Grozny in Chechnya, Russia. There were 67 people on board – 38 of them perished in the crash.
According to Azerbaijan Airlines, the pilot attempted to make an emergency landing two miles from Aktau but could not successfully bring the plane to the ground. Instead, the aircraft took a nosedive, split in two upon impact, and exploded into a fireball.
The Kremlin is now leading an investigation into the crash and warning against speculation from the public. “It would be incorrect to make any hypotheses before the investigation comes to conclusions, and we definitely cannot do it, and no one should do it,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in a daily news briefing.
Despite warnings, an aviation expert speculated that a Russian anti-missile battery may have caused the crash after examining evidence that one may have made contact with the aircraft.
“Subsequent reporting and contextual information, including the follow-on video examination of the wreckage … and circumstances surrounding the airspace security environment in southwest Russia, leads Osprey to assess that the flight was likely shot down by a Russian air defense system,” Matthew Borie, chief intelligence officer of the aviation security firm, Osprey Flight Solutions, said.
According to Borie, Russian air defense forces were deployed against Ukrainian forces, attempting to shoot down military drones. Russian forces shot down drones in Grozny and Chechnya, the former of which was the destination for the commercial flight.
Based on the visible damage to the plane, Andriy Kovalenko, Ukrainian head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, concluded that the plane “was shot down by a Russian air-defense system.”
Despite the Ukrainian and American speculation, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev remains cautious in assigning blame. “There are various theories, but I believe it is premature to discuss them,” he said. “The matter must be thoroughly investigated.”
