Blame for Azerbaijani Citizens' Death Crash near Aqtau Lies with Russian Federation Representatives - Aliyev

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has met with the families of the flight crew and surviving flight attendants of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed near Aqtau, Orda reports.

According to AzerTaj, President Aliyev paid tribute to the pilots' heroic efforts to save passengers despite impossible circumstances while extending his condolences to the victims' families.

He added that preliminary findings indicate Russia bears responsibility for the damage to the aircraft:

I do not want to disclose all the materials of the criminal case yet. The results of the initial investigation have been reported to me. I can say with confidence that the blame for the fact that Azerbaijani citizens died in this disaster lies with the representatives of the Russian Federation.

According to Minval news outlet, Aliyev called for those responsible to be held accountable.

We demand justice, punishment of the perpetrators, full transparency and humane treatment. I am sure that in the near future we will know the preliminary result, and everything will fall into place, the whole picture of the tragedy will be known. And this will be an important moment in the full investigation of the tragedy and the punishment of those responsible, said the President of Azerbaijan.

Minval suggests the tragedy could have been prevented had Grozny closed its airspace in time and if there had been better coordination between the Russian military and civil services.

Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan might have agreed to let the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) analyze the flight recorders:

We categorically objected to the participation of the Interstate Aviation Committee in order to avoid a conflict of interest. The analysis is being conducted in the presence of representatives of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia.

Meanwhile, the aircraft's black boxes are being decoded in Brazil.

Early Russian attempts to attribute the crash to a bird strike or an onboard oxygen tank explosion also raised doubts about the IAC's ability to conduct an impartial investigation. 

It is clear as day that the plane was rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare. It is also obvious that the plane was damaged by fire from the ground. But why was it sent to Aqtau? We have no information about this yet, Aliyev added.

Aliyev also claimed that the "carpet operation," i.e., closing the airspace, was announced after the plane was fired upon from the ground.

The AZAL Airlines aircraft crashed on December 25, 2024, claiming the lives of 38 people.

There were 29 survivors.

Original Author: Anastasia Prilepskaya