Thirty-eight of the 67 people aboard Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 died when it came down near Aktau, Kazakhstan, on December 25, 2024. Two days later the airline cut seven Russian cities from its map.
The Embraer 190 had been flying from Baku to Grozny, in Chechnya. It never got there. The jet veered far off course across the Caspian Sea and crashed in a field hundreds of miles from its planned route; 29 people survived.
Two routes, then five more
AZAL stopped its Baku flights to Grozny and Makhachkala straight after the crash. On Friday, December 27, it added five more: Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa and Samara, with the ban starting December 28. The Azerbaijan State Civil Aviation Agency made that decision, the Azerbaijani news agency AzerTAC reported.
The airline said preliminary findings pointed to “external physical and technical interference” with the aircraft, and it cited “potential risks to flight safety.” Other carriers were already moving. Qazaq Air paused Astana to Ekaterinburg for one month, flydubai dropped Sochi and Mineralnye Vody, and El Al suspended Tel Aviv to Moscow for one week.
What is claimed, and what is not
No official cause has been announced. A source in Azerbaijan told Reuters that early findings suggested a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system mistakenly downed the plane, and the White House said the United States had seen early indications of the same. Sources cited by the Azerbaijani website Caliber said much the same.
Russia gave a different picture. Dmitry Yadrov, head of the country’s civil aviation agency, said Ukrainian drones were attacking Grozny while the plane tried to land in heavy fog. It made two failed attempts, he said, and the pilot, offered other airports, chose Aktau. The Kremlin’s Dmitry Peskov declined to comment: “we don’t believe we have the right to make any assessments until the conclusions are made as a result of the investigation,” he said.
AZAL did not say how long the suspensions would last.
Sources
- Azerbaijan Airlines suspends flights to some Russian cities
- Azerbaijan Airlines halts flights to Russian cities after crash (AFP, via Oman Observer)
- Azerbaijan Airlines says there was 'external interference' before crash
