What we know about the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines

On December 25, 38 people died when an Azerbaijan Airlines flight scheduled to land in Russia made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan.

The circumstances surrounding the crash remain unclear, but limited evidence so far suggests it may have been damaged by missiles fired by a Russian air defense system while trying to land in Chechnya.

Here’s what we know about flight J2-8243.

Early on Christmas morning, flight J2-8243 took off from the airport of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. He was supposed to land in Grozny, the capital of the Russian region of Chechnya.

There were 67 passengers on board, most of whom were citizens of Azerbaijan, as well as those from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The plane is an Embraer 190 operated by Azerbaijan Airlines.

As the flight approached Grozny, it entered thick fog, surviving passengers said.

They describe how the pilot tried to land the plane twice in these conditions.

Survivors claimed that on the third attempt they felt a series of explosions hitting the plane.

“The third time something exploded … part of the skin of the plane was blown off,” one of them told Russian television.

Flight attendant Zulfukar Asadov told local media that the impact of the strike had “caused panic inside”.

“We tried to calm (the passengers), seat them. At that moment there was another blow and my hand was injured,” he said.

In-flight video taken by a passenger shows oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.

Azerbaijan’s Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev said: “All (survivors) without exception stated that they heard three explosions when the plane was over Grozny.”

He said the plane was subjected to “external interference” and damaged inside and out while trying to land.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has attacked Chechnya and other parts of the Russian Caucasus with drone strikes.

After the crash, authorities in Moscow said such attacks had triggered a protocol to close the airspace over Grozny.

According to local authorities, a drone was shot down this morning by air defenses over a shopping center in Vladikavkaz, in nearby North Ossetia.

It is unclear whether the closed airspace protocol – known as the “carpet plan” – was put in place before or while flight J2-8243 was in Russian airspace.

After the incident over Grozny, the plane diverted about 450 km (280 miles) east to Aktau Airport in Kazakhstan.

It remains unclear why it was diverted over the Caspian Sea – a much longer journey than several other options.

Russian aviation authorities say the plane’s pilots were “offered other airports” but chose Aktau.

Data released by flight-tracking website Flight Radar showed the plane zigzagging up and down as it approached Aktau before turning around and making an emergency landing just kilometers from the airport.

Video from near the crash site shows the plane descending rapidly into the air before crashing into the ground and sliding several hundred meters in a ball of fire.

38 people were killed and 29 survived, some with serious injuries. Remarkably, some survivors were seen walking and crawling from the wreckage.

The plane’s pilots are credited with saving lives by being able to land part of the plane, although they died in the crash.

Most of the survivors are believed to have been seated in its rear.

Initial Russian media reports suggested the plane had collided with a flock of birds.

However, aviation experts and others in Azerbaijan believe the plane’s GPS systems were affected by electronic jamming and it was then damaged by shrapnel from Russian air defense missile blasts.

On Friday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the US had “early indications” that Russia was responsible, but declined to comment further.

Azerbaijan’s government has so far avoided blaming Russia directly, but Azerbaijani government sources told Reuters that the investigation had already identified the weapon that fired during the flight as the Russian Panzer-S anti-aircraft system.

So far, the Kremlin has refused to comment on reports that the plane was hit by Russian weapons.

“An investigation is underway and until the conclusions are drawn as a result of the investigation, we do not consider ourselves entitled to make any assessments,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The plane’s on-board recorders have been found and contain data to help determine the cause of the crash.

Reports in Baku indicate that both Russia and Kazakhstan have proposed a commission from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – a regional body dominated by Russia – to investigate the crash, but Azerbaijan has instead asked for an international investigation.

Azerbaijan Airlines and several other airlines suspended flights to some Russian cities in response to the crash.