It was anything but a quiet Christmas morning for passengers on Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8432 headed from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in Russia.
At least 38 passengers were killed as the plane attempted to make an emergency landing near the Kazakh city of Aktau. 29 other passengers on board did survive the crash and were transported to receive care for their wounds at nearby medical facilities.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev was flying himself at the time of the tragic accident. Aliyev was headed to St. Petersburg to attend an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) hosted and organised by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Upon hearing of the accident Aliyev said in an official briefing released by the Azerbaijani Presidency “when I was informed of this tragic incident during the flight. I immediately gave instructions for the plane to return to Baku. While still in the air, I issued the necessary directives and spoke with the Prime Minister”.
Aliyev convened his cabinet for an emergency meeting upon his arrival at Baku. The Azerbaijani leader also gave further instructions to his government to initiate a commission to investigate the crash.
“The commission’s task is to fully investigate the matter, examine the causes of the crash and all its details, and provide information both to me and to the Azerbaijani public,” said Aliyev.
The Azerbaijani president says the matter needs to be fully uncovered, though he did not hint at what his government suspects as the cause behind the crash.
“According to the information provided to me, the AZAL airline plane, flying on the Baku-Grozny route, changed its course due to worsening weather conditions and began heading toward Aktau airport, where the crash occurred during landing. There are videos of the plane crash available in the media and on social networks, and everyone can watch them. However, the reasons for the crash are not yet known to us. There are various theories, but I believe it is premature to discuss them. The matter must be thoroughly investigated.”
Aliyev says the Azerbaijani public will be regularly informed of the commission’s findings, work and progress in the criminal case.
Earlier reports suggested the plane on its usual Baku-Grozny route was forced to divert as it experienced harsh weather conditions. Azerbaijani media say pilots on board the Embraer 190’s flight deck made the decision to attempt an emergency landing at Aktau to evade the weather.
Russian media speculated that the plane could have been shot down accidentally mistaking it for a Ukrainian drone. Russia was reportedly actively repelling Ukrainian drone attacks in the region at the time of the crash, but no official sources have confirmed or commented on this theory.
Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure-eight once nearing the airport in Aktau. Its altitude moved up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight before impacting the ground.
FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming,” which “made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data”, referring to the information that allows flight-tracking websites to follow planes in flight.
Social media videos gathered by AnewZ news channel appear to show the aircraft struggling to make an emergency landing and breaking up in a fireball as it hits the ground.
A spokesperson for Azerbaijan Airlines said they’re cooperating with the investigation but in the meantime assured the public that all necessary medical and psychological support will be provided to victims of the crash and their families, regardless of nationality.
