Russian Air-Defense system downed Azerbaijan Plane, Killing 38 on Board

Allison Bennett

Staff Writer 

On December 25, 2024, Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243, a Brazilian-made Embraer 190 passenger jet, traveling from  Baku, Azerbaijan to Grozny, Russia was forced to veer off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea upon entering Russia’s southern Chechnya region, before crash landing in Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, according to Reuters.

With conflicting accounts of why the pilots of the aircraft diverted towards Aktau, Russian, Azerbaijani, and Kazakhstani officials all opened investigations into the cause of the crash. The Associated Press claims that various officials put forward initial theories that included possibilities of a bird strike, bad weather conditions in Grozny, and an oxygen canister exploding aboard the plane. On December 27, Azerbaijan Airlines said that the plane experienced “external physical and technical interference,” not specifying where they believed the interference came from. Videos and images after the plane crashed showed perforations in the plane’s body that looked like damage from shrapnel or debris, though the cause of the holes had not been confirmed. 

The head of Russia’s civil aviation authority, Dmitry Yadrov said that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic. Yadrov further explained that after the captain made two unsuccessful attempts to land, he was offered other Russian airports but decided to fly to Aktau. Later that day, senior officials in the United States and Azerbaijan made separate statements suggesting the plane may have been brought down by weapons fire. 

CBS News quotes the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev saying, “We can say with complete clarity that the plane was shot down by Russia. (…) We are not saying it was done intentionally, but it was done.” A U.S. official told new sources that there were early indications a Russian anti-aircraft system may have struck the plane in a region where Ukrainian and Russian forces have traded drone and rocket fire in previous months. 

The Guardian reports that Brazil’s air force has been able to extract the data from the two black box recorders belonging to the crashed Embraer. The black box recording captured cockpit dialogue and flight data from the plane before the incident. Although the recorders were analyzed in Brazil, Kazakhstan oversees the release of the results. Brazil’s air force said in a statement, “All the data was handed over to the Kazakhstan investigation authority in accordance with international protocols for investing aircraft accidents.” 

In the days following the crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized that the “tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace,” but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility. CNN further reports that on Monday, President Aliyev accused Russia of a “cover-up”. Aliyev is quoted saying, “If the city of Grozny had taken timely measures to close Russian airspace over its territory, if all the rules of ground services had been observed, and if there had been coordination between the armed forces and civil services of the Russian Federation, then this tragedy would not have happened.” 

“I am sure that in the near future we will learn the initial results, and everything will fall into place. The whole picture of the tragedy that occurred will also become known. Of course, this will be an important moment in the full investigation of the tragedy and the punishment of its perpetrators,” said Aliyev.

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