Officials are trying to determine what caused it The crash of the “Azerbaijan Airlines” plane. in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing 38 people on board, 29 survived, how speculations are growing that the Russian military could have played a role in the disaster.
Here's what we know so far:
How did the plane crash?
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, an Embraer 190, was flying from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to the Russian North Caucasus city of Grozny on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons that are not yet entirely clear.
It crashed while trying to reach another airport in Aktau in western Kazakhstan.
Cell phone footage appears to show the plane descending steeply before crashing into the ground and exploding in a fireball about two miles from the Aktau airport.
Photos from the scene show the rear of the plane's fuselage still intact after the crash and lying upside down in a field.
ISSA TAZHENBAYEV/AFP via Getty Images
The airline said there were 67 people on board — 62 passengers and five crew members — and 38 people died in the crash, but 29 of those on board survived.
Investigators recovered both so-called black boxes, flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the crash site.
Why did the plane change course?
There were conflicting opinions as to why the plane's pilots turned the plane down.
Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, initially said it appeared the pilots headed to Oktau after the bird collision. Russian and Azerbaijani officials later suggested that the plane had been diverted due to fog or bad weather in Grozny. Then Russia also declared that Ukrainian drones targeted the Grozny region.
Murat Usubali / Anadolu via Getty Images
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that it is too early to determine the cause of the crash, because bad weather forced the plane to change its planned course.
“I was given information that the plane changed course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed on approach,” he said.
Russian Aviation chief Dmitry Yadrov said Friday that as the plane prepared to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones targeted the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic.
Yadrov said that after the captain made two unsuccessful attempts to land, he was offered other airports, but he decided to fly to Kazakhstan's Aktau, across the Caspian Sea.
What do officials and aviation experts say about the possible cause?
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia have started an investigation into the causes of the disaster. The Kremlin called people not to jump to conclusions.
In a statement on Friday, Dec. 27, Azerbaijan Airlines said the plane experienced “external physical and technical interference,” but did not say where it believed the interference came from or provide any additional details. He announced the suspension of flights to a number of Russian airports.
A U.S. official told CBS News that there are early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft system may have struck the plane in a region where Ukrainian and Russian forces have exchanged drones and missiles for months. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that if true, it would further highlight Russia's recklessness in its current actions. invasion of Ukraine.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that U.S. officials “have seen some early indications that certainly point to the possibility that this plane was shot down by Russian air defense systems.”
He confirmed to reporters that the U.S. had intelligence or information indicating such a possibility, but said Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were currently investigating and the U.S. would “respect that process.”
Meiramgul Kusainova/Anadolu via Getty Images
Meanwhile, independent aviation experts have questioned the bird-strike theory, with some pointing to damage seen on the plane's fuselage as evidence it may have come under fire.
“It certainly doesn't look like a flock of birds,” said CBS News aviation security analyst Robert Sumwalt, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Birds do not fly at the altitude at which this aircraft sustained its initial damage,” Sumwalt added.
Independent Russian military expert Yan Matsveev noted that pictures of the tail section of the crashed plane reveal damage consistent with shrapnel from small surface-to-air missiles, such as the Pantsir-S1 air defense system.
“It seems that the tail part of the plane was damaged by some fragments of the missile,” he said.
Speaking to reporters during a selection meeting on December 27, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on allegations of possible Russian involvement in the crash, saying investigators must determine the cause.
Those who survived heard a noise before falling
Passengers and crew members who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud sounds of the plane circling over Grozny.
Flight attendant Aidan Rahimli said that after one noise, the oxygen masks were released automatically. She said that she went to provide first aid to her colleague Zulfugar Asadav, and then they heard another crash.
Press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kazakhstan via AP
Asadov said the sounds sounded like something hitting the plane from outside. Shortly after, he suffered a sudden injury, such as “a deep gash, the arm was torn apart, as if someone had hit me on the arm with an axe,” he said. He rejected the claim by Kazakh officials that an oxygen canister exploded inside the plane.
Two other survivors said they heard explosions before the plane went down: Jerova Salihat told Azerbaijan TV in an interview at the hospital that “something exploded” near her leg, and Vafa Shabanova said “there were two explosions in the sky, and an hour and a half later the plane fell to the ground.”
Chris Livesey and
contributed to this report.