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, Kazakhstan, 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.
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 with journalists.
His 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 aviation-security firm Osprey Flight Solutions.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Osprey’s findings.
Earlier, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation Andriy Kovalenko said that the plane “was shot down by a Russian air-defense system,” citing visible damage to the plane.
The flight’s destination was Grozny, which is near Ukraine and the ongoing war with Russia, but it was rerouted to Aktau after an emergency onboard, according to a statement issued by Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsia on Wednesday.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev echoed Peskov’s caution, saying, “there are various theories, but I believe it is premature to discuss them. The matter must be thoroughly investigated,” speaking in a meeting dedicated to the incident on Wednesday.
“The reasons for the crash are not yet known,” Aliyev said, adding that Azerbaijan has launched its own investigation into the incident.
Aliyev said that the flight changed course due to “worsening weather conditions” and that the “crash occurred during landing” as the plane descended toward Aktau airport.
Aliyev declared Thursday a national day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
The flight had 62 passengers and five crew members on board, according to Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry. Later, the Kazakh Health Ministry published a list of 29 survivors, including two children.
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