Azerbaijan Airlines Temporarily Suspends Flights To Russia Due To 'Safety Concerns'

Last Updated:December 27, 2024, 16:28 IST

The suspension of flights comes as analysts and media reports claim the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet was shot down by Russian air forces.

The Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday, killing 38 people. (Reuters)

Azerbaijan Airlines has suspended all flights to Russian cities following the deadly crash of an Azerbaijani passenger jet in Kazakhstan that resulted in the deaths of 38 passengers.

Starting from Saturday (December 28), the airline would cease flights to Sochi, Ufa, Samara Volgograd, Grozny, Mineralnye Vody and Makhachkala, as per reports. This came after Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air also announced that it would not operate flights to Yekaterinburg.

Azerbaijan Airlines had initially halted flights between Baku and Russia’s Chechnya until the completion of an investigation into the crash, as per the TASS news agency, amid reports claiming that Russian air defences had shot down the plane carrying 67 people.

Meanwhile, Israel’s national airline El Al has also temporarily suspended flights to Moscow following the crash near Azerbaijan’s Aktau city amid “developments in Russia’s airspace". The Israeli airline said it would reassess the situation and decide whether to resume flights next week.

Russia’s Alleged Involvement In Plane Crash

The Azerbaijan Airline Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday near the city of Aktau after diverting from an area of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defence systems against Ukrainian drone strikes. Out of 62 people and five crew members, 32 passengers were rescued and 38 were killed in the crash.

The Embraer passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea. It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian after what Russia’s aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.

An Azerbaijani source familiar with the investigation told Reuters that preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system. Its communications were paralysed by electronic warfare systems on the approach into Grozny, the source said.

“No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft," the source said. Three other sources confirmed that the Azeri investigation had come to the same preliminary conclusion. Multiple media reports also indicated towards the same.

Russia Warns Against Reports

Azeri government sources told Euronews that the jet was hit by a Russian surface-to-air missile. Russia, reacting to the report, said that “it is wrong to speculate".

“The investigation into the cause of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash is underway and it is wrong to speculate before it gives its conclusions," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

When asked about the incident, the Kremlin said it would be improper to comment until the inquiry was concluded. “It is wrong to build hypotheses before the conclusions of the investigation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared Thursday a day of mourning and cancelled a planned visit to Russia for an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation with Aliyev and “expressed his condolences in connection with the crash", Peskov told a news conference.

(with agency inputs)

Baku, Azerbaijan

News world Azerbaijan Airlines Temporarily Suspends Flights To Russia Due To 'Safety Concerns'