Budanov on the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines airliner: it was shot down by a Russian Pantsir-S1
Kyiv • UNN
Azerbaijan Airlines flight JS-8432 was shot down by the Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system over Russian territory. According to sources, after the missile hit, the plane was not allowed to make an emergency landing in Russia.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight JS-8432 crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday as a result of a Russian short-range air defense system Pantsyr-S1, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov told The War Zone, UNN reports.
As far as we know, the plane was shot down by a Russian Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile system on Russian territory,” said Kyrylo Budanov.
Citing four sources close to the Azerbaijani investigation, Reuters reported that the plane was shot down by Russian air defenses “after it deviated from its route in an area of Russia where Moscow has used air defense systems against Ukrainian drones in recent months.
Euronews, citing “Azerbaijani government sources,” reported that “a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Aktau on Wednesday.
“According to the sources, the missile was fired at Flight 8432 during unmanned aerial activity over Grozny, and debris hit passengers and crew, exploding next to the plane in mid-flight,” the outlet reports. “Government sources told Euronews that the damaged plane was not allowed to land at Russian airports, despite the pilots' request for an emergency landing, and was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea toward Aktau in Kazakhstan. According to the data received, the aircraft's GPS navigation systems were blocked throughout the flight over the sea.
A video shot by one of the passengers before the crash allegedly shows “shrapnel holes in the fuselage, which correspond to damage from a Russian surface-to-air missile,” the Azeri Times news outlet said on its Twitter account. “The footage also shows a woman bleeding from her leg, wounded by shrapnel.
Another video taken inside the plane also shows shrapnel damage.
The video recorded after the crash shows that the tail section of the plane is riddled with shrapnel.
Kazakhstan's Transport Minister Marat Karabayev said on Thursday that the Kazakhstani control center received a signal from Russia about 45 minutes before the plane crashed, CNN reports.
“According to Karabayev, the Russian dispatcher said that the plane had a malfunction in the control systems and that the crew decided to fly to Aktau after receiving reports of bad weather,” CNN reports. According to Karabayev, the dispatcher later said that “an oxygen cylinder exploded in the passenger cabin, causing the passengers to lose consciousness.” The crew of Azerbaijan Airlines made two landing approaches at Aktau airport, but the plane veered off course and lost contact with Aktau controllers when it crashed, Karabayev said.”
Flight tracking site Flightradar24 reported that the plane took off on Wednesday at 7:55 a.m. AST and crashed at 10:28 a.m. AST.
