Kremlin warns against speculation that Russia shot down Azerbaijan Airlines flight
The Kremlin on Thursday warned against speculating what may have caused an Azerbaijan Airlines flight to crash, killing 38 of the 67 on board, after an aviation expert said evidence indicated that a Russian anti-missile battery may have brought down the passenger plane. The Embraer 190 crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau while en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in Chechnya in Russia on Wednesday. The flight attempted to make an emergency landing about 1.8 miles from Aktau, according to Azerbaijan Airlines, but instead hit the ground, erupted into a fiery ball and split into two. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the investigation into the cause of the crash was underway. “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,” he said in his daily press conference. Kanat Bozumbayev, the Kazakh deputy prime minister, also cautioned against assigning a cause while the investigation is in its preliminary stage. “The police and the prosecutor’s office are conducting forensic examinations,” Bozumbayev told Kazakh media on Thursday, adding, “Therefore, at this point, it is premature to talk about anything. This is pure hype.” Putin’s and Bozumbayev’s comments come amid growing speculation that Russian air defenses may be behind the crash. “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,” said Matthew Borie, chief intelligence officer at the aviation security firm Osprey Flight Solutions. Borie said another potential theory, that the plane collided with a bird or birds, would have probably led to reports of more than one explosion and the damage to the aircraft appearing differently.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-12-27/unaligned/kremlin-warns-against-speculation-that-russia-shot-down-azerbaijan-airlines-flight
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Kremlin warns against speculation that Russia shot down Azerbaijan Airlines flight
The Kremlin on Thursday warned against speculating what may have caused an Azerbaijan Airlines flight to crash, killing 38 of the 67 on board, after an aviation expert said evidence indicated that a Russian anti-missile battery may have brought down the passenger plane. The Embraer 190 crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau while en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in Chechnya in Russia on Wednesday. The flight attempted to make an emergency landing about 1.8 miles from Aktau, according to Azerbaijan Airlines, but instead hit the ground, erupted into a fiery ball and split into two. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the investigation into the cause of the crash was underway. “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,” he said in his daily press conference. Kanat Bozumbayev, the Kazakh deputy prime minister, also cautioned against assigning a cause while the investigation is in its preliminary stage. “The police and the prosecutor’s office are conducting forensic examinations,” Bozumbayev told Kazakh media on Thursday, adding, “Therefore, at this point, it is premature to talk about anything. This is pure hype.” Putin’s and Bozumbayev’s comments come amid growing speculation that Russian air defenses may be behind the crash. “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,” said Matthew Borie, chief intelligence officer at the aviation security firm Osprey Flight Solutions. Borie said another potential theory, that the plane collided with a bird or birds, would have probably led to reports of more than one explosion and the damage to the aircraft appearing differently.<br/>
