Anti-aircraft fire may have caused plane to crash in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, according to US and regional officials
The aircraft crashed while making an attempt to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan after flying east across the Caspian Sea. Photograph: The Administration of Mangystau Region via APanti-aircraft fire could have caused a plane to crash in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, according to US and regional officials.Airlines flight was en route from Azerbaijan ’s capital Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, southern Russia , when it diverted and crash-landed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. Twenty-nine passengers survived.
But that was questioned by experts and officials in the US, the region and Ukraine, who cited evidence that Russian air defences were operating over Grozny at the time in response to a Ukrainian drone strike. They also cited images of what appeared to be shrapnel damage on the inside and tail of the wrecked plane.
Osprey, an aviation security agency, said: “Follow-on video of the wreckage and the circumstances around the airspace security environment in southwest Russia indicate the possibility the aircraft was hit by some form of anti-aircraft fire.” If the investigation, which is being led by Kazakhstan officials, finds the plane was hit by air defence systems, the incident would recall the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014. The crash, which killed 298 people, was caused by a missile launched by Russian-controlled proxy fighters in eastern Ukraine, an investigation concluded.
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