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The national airlines of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have suspended some flights to Russia following the downing of an Azerbaijani airliner by Russian air defense systems.
The Kazakh airline, Kazakh Air, announced on Friday that it has suspended the route from Astana to Yekaterinburg. Kazinform news agencyAzerbaijan Airlines has suspended flights to seven cities in southern Russia.
The measures came after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight en route from Baku to the Russian capital Grozny on the Caspian Sea crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.
Video of the crashed plane’s fuselage showed numerous punctuation marks consistent with anti-aircraft fire. Russia was also jamming GPS navigation systems near Grozny at the time, apparently to prevent attacks by Ukrainian drones.
Kazakh Air said it had suspended flights to Yekaterinburg until January 27 pending a “further risk assessment” of flights to Russia. Azerbaijan Airlines has suspended flights to Grozny and other southern Russian cities pending an investigation into the crash.
IsraelFlag carrier El Al announced on Thursday that it is pending a security review of flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow.
Russia insists the plane was unable to land in Grozny due to heavy fog and that the plane hit a flock of birds. Local authorities in the neighboring Russian province of North Ossetia have reported a Ukrainian drone strike, one of which was shot down and a woman killed on the ground. But the Kommersant newspaper reported that there was no “heavy fog” forecast for Grozny at the time.
Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s Rosavia Aviation Agency, said on Thursday that the situation around Grozny was “very difficult” due to attacks by Ukrainian fighter drones.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday he had nothing to add when asked about reports of the missile attack.
The incident took place in The 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 has drawn comparisons to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine. He came to the conclusion The crash, which killed all 298 people on board, was the result of an anti-aircraft missile attack by Russian-controlled fighters in eastern Ukraine.
It is unclear how long Kazakhstan’s investigation into the crash will take or how free it will be to reach conclusions about the cause. The investigation includes investigators from Russia and Azerbaijan, according to the Kazakh authorities.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said it was too early to comment on the cause of the accident.
The type of aircraft involved – the Embraer-190 Regional Jet – was previously considered one of the most reliable civil aircraft in the world.
A senior US official said there were early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft missile could shoot down the flight.
Senior Ukrainian officials They spoke The Financial Times also believed the plane had been hit by an anti-aircraft missile. An official of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Kovalenko, posted on Telegram on Thursday that Russia should have closed the airspace over Grozny, but did not do what it was doing.
“Instead of making an emergency landing in Grozny and saving lives, the plane was damaged by the Russians and sent to Kazakhstan.
Azerbaijan parliament member Rasim Musabekov demanded an apology from Russia.
“The plane was shot down in the skies over Grozny in Russian territory, and this cannot be denied,” Musabekov told the Turan news agency. “This is how a civilized relationship works. “If the air defense systems are active, the airport should be closed, and a warning should be issued to prevent flights to the area,” he said.
