Mistrust and tension evident as Azerbaijan refuses Russian-led E190 crash probe
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev has disclosed that a Russian offer to investigate the Embraer 190 crash in Aktau was “categorically refused” over concerns that it would not have been objective. Although Azerbaijan is a member of the Interstate Aviation Committee, which investigates accidents involving aircraft of state parties, the circumstances of the 25 December crash have generated political tensions between the two governments. Aliyev told the state broadcaster AzTV that Russian representatives must acknowledge responsibility for the crash, accusing them of “obvious attempts” in the immediate aftermath to ”hush-up” the cause. “If we had seen fair and reasonable steps by Russia in the immediate aftermath of the accident, we probably would not have objected [to the offer],” he said, according to the transcript published by the president’s official office. The Interstate Aviation Committee is ICAO-accredited and has led multiple high-profile investigations of civil air transport accidents, but was notably sidelined during a probe into last year’s fatal crash of an Embraer Legacy 600 carrying the leader of a private military organisation. Suspicion that military activity played a role in the E190 crash has led to concerns over the objectivity of a Russian-led inquiry, and the decision to gather an international team, headed by Kazakhstan, with Russian investigators among the participants. Aliyev says the initial theories are “quite reasonable”, indicating that the jet was externally damaged near Grozny, its destination, and “almost lost control”. “We also know that our aircraft was rendered uncontrollable by electronic-warfare means,” he says, while ground-fire “severely damaged” the aircraft’s tail. He adds that “the fact that the fuselage is riddled with holes”, along with the injuries to occupants and the testimony of survivors, ridicule initial claims of a bird-strike or oxygen cylinder explosion, although he accepts that the crew could have perceived the damage impact as a bird collision.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-12-31/unaligned/mistrust-and-tension-evident-as-azerbaijan-refuses-russian-led-e190-crash-probe
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Mistrust and tension evident as Azerbaijan refuses Russian-led E190 crash probe
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev has disclosed that a Russian offer to investigate the Embraer 190 crash in Aktau was “categorically refused” over concerns that it would not have been objective. Although Azerbaijan is a member of the Interstate Aviation Committee, which investigates accidents involving aircraft of state parties, the circumstances of the 25 December crash have generated political tensions between the two governments. Aliyev told the state broadcaster AzTV that Russian representatives must acknowledge responsibility for the crash, accusing them of “obvious attempts” in the immediate aftermath to ”hush-up” the cause. “If we had seen fair and reasonable steps by Russia in the immediate aftermath of the accident, we probably would not have objected [to the offer],” he said, according to the transcript published by the president’s official office. The Interstate Aviation Committee is ICAO-accredited and has led multiple high-profile investigations of civil air transport accidents, but was notably sidelined during a probe into last year’s fatal crash of an Embraer Legacy 600 carrying the leader of a private military organisation. Suspicion that military activity played a role in the E190 crash has led to concerns over the objectivity of a Russian-led inquiry, and the decision to gather an international team, headed by Kazakhstan, with Russian investigators among the participants. Aliyev says the initial theories are “quite reasonable”, indicating that the jet was externally damaged near Grozny, its destination, and “almost lost control”. “We also know that our aircraft was rendered uncontrollable by electronic-warfare means,” he says, while ground-fire “severely damaged” the aircraft’s tail. He adds that “the fact that the fuselage is riddled with holes”, along with the injuries to occupants and the testimony of survivors, ridicule initial claims of a bird-strike or oxygen cylinder explosion, although he accepts that the crew could have perceived the damage impact as a bird collision.<br/>
