“After the explosion… I thought the plane was going to fall apart,” one passenger, Sukhonkur Rakhimov, told Reuters from the hospital.
He said after hearing the explosion, he said a prayer and began preparing for the end.
“It was clear that the plane was damaged in some way,” he said. “It was like I was drunk. It wasn’t the same plane anymore.”
Another passenger on the plane also told Reuters he heard a loud bang. “It was very scary,” Vafa Shabanova said, adding that there was also a second shock. She was then asked by the flight attendant to move to the back of the plane.
Both passengers said there appeared to be a problem with oxygen levels on board after the explosion.
Zulfgar Asadov, a flight attendant, said the plane was refused a landing in Grozny due to fog, and as the pilot turned around he heard a bang outside the plane.
“As the pilot raised his plan, he heard an impact from the left wing. There were three impacts,” he said.
Something hit my left arm. The cabin lost pressure.
As well as the horror of the crash, the first-person narratives of the passengers provide insight into what caused the accident.
Azerbaijan Airlines on Friday grounded a number of flights to the Russian city and said it believed the crash was caused by what it called “external interference, physical and technical.” It did not elaborate on what that interference was.
Four sources familiar with the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan’s investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses shot it down by mistake.
Russia said it was important to wait until the official investigation was completed to understand what happened.
crash landing
The Embraer jet flew from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in Russia’s southern Chechnya region, before flying hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.
“The captain said that he was advised to land the plane at sea, but decided to set a course for Aktau and land on the ground,” attendant Asadov said.
“He warned that it would be a hard landing and asked passengers to be prepared.”
It crashed on the other side of the Caspian Sea after what Russian aviation surveillance authorities said was an emergency possibly caused by a bird strike.
Footage taken by passengers before the crash showed people pulling down their oxygen masks and wearing life jackets. Later footage showed passengers exiting the plane with blood and bruises.
Rakhimov said there was silence after the chaos of the crash, before the groans of the injured began.
The incident highlighted the risks to civil aviation, especially when a large-scale drone war is underway, even when flying aircraft hundreds of miles away from a combat zone.
Previous disasters include the 2020 shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, killing all 176 people on board.
In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian BUK missile system over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
In 1983, the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Flight 007 after it veered off course and flew in prohibited airspace. In 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war, the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian Airlines flight over the Gulf, killing all 290 people on board.
drone war
The Azerbaijan Airlines jet, which ran into trouble near Grozny, more than 850 kilometers (530 miles) from Ukraine’s front lines, has been a repeated target of Ukrainian drones attacking far behind Russian lines.
Russia has used sophisticated electronic jamming equipment to disrupt Ukraine’s drone location and communication systems, as well as numerous air defense systems, and shoot down drones.
Since Russia sent thousands of troops to Ukraine in 2022, airlines have flown all over the country and shut down a major airport in southwestern Russia.
“We are in a conflict in the region and that will not change,” Osprey Flight Solutions CEO Andrew Nicholson said.
“The moment you bring a commercial aircraft into the same airspace, the risk increases significantly, especially if, as in this scenario, there is a drone attack underway and air defense operations underway.”
Russia’s aviation surveillance authority announced on Friday that the plane had decided to reroute from its original destination of Chechnya amid heavy fog and local alerts for Ukrainian drones.
Rosavyatsia said the captain was offered other airports to land, but chose Aktau, Kazakhstan. It said it would provide comprehensive support to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan’s investigations into the crash.
Asked about reports that Russian air defenses shot down the plane by mistake, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday he had nothing to add and did not want to make any assessment until the official investigation concluded. Ta. (Reporting by Nairya Bagirova in Baku and Gleb Stralyov in Tbilisi; Additional reporting by Joanna Prusinska in London; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Editing by Andrew Osborne and Angus McSwan)
