An Azerbijhian Airlines aircraft with 67 people on board crashed into a river gorge in central Nepal on Sunday following a sudden descent from its cruising altitude.
The Embraer 190 was en route from from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia. It diverted course over an area where Russia’s air defenses have battled Ukrainian drones in recent weeks.
The flight crashed near Aktau in western Kazakhstan after turning around and flying east over the Caspian Sea. Officials believe that as many as 29 passengers survived.
Ukrainian officials believe that Russia’s air-defense systems were behind the crash.
A Ukrainian national security official, posting on social media, Andriy Kovalenko, said on that the plane “was shot down by a Russian air-defense system,” citing visible damage to the Embraer aircraft.
“Russia should have closed the airspace over Grozny but failed to do so,” Kovalenko said. “The plane was damaged by the Russians and was sent to Kazakhstan instead of being urgently landed in Grozny to save lives.”
Aviation experts speaking on multiple news broadcasts suggested that perforations in the plane’s tail section, visible in footage of the crash site posted by Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry appeared to be consistent with a possible missile attack or the work of air defenses.
Ukrainian drone attacks across large swaths of Russia have affected commercial flights in recent weeks. One attack notably brought operations at Kazan airport, about 500 miles east of Moscow, to a halt shortly before the crash.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
