Azerbaijan Airlines crash: Airline says plane crashed due to 'external interference'
Kazakh media said the passengers aboard included 37 citizens from Azerbaijan, 16 from Russia, six from Kazakhstan, and three from Kyrgyzstan.
Azerbaijan Airlines said on Friday (Dec 27) that its Embraer E190 aircraft bearing flight number J2-8243 crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday due to "physical and technical externalinterference"
While announcing the suspension of flights to 10 Russian airports, Azerbaijan Airlines said the decision was "based on the preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft operating the Baku-Grozny flight J2-8243 of Azerbaijan Airlines due to physical and technical external interference."
The tragic crash
The plane crashed near Aktau Airport in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, after taking off from Azerbaijan's Baku en route to Grozny. Of the 67 people on board, 38 were killed in the crash, and 29 survivors including two children were pulled from the wreckage, Kazakh authorities said on Wednesday.
Also read | Azerbaijan Airlines crash: Russia cautions against promoting 'hypotheses' about accident
Kazakh media said the passengers aboard included 37 citizens from Azerbaijan, 16 from Russia, six from Kazakhstan, and three from Kyrgyzstan.
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Second black box found at crash site
The development of Azerbaijan Airlines announcing the cause of the crash came a day after the second black box (of the aircraft) was found at the crash site.
Speaking to the news agency Reuters,a Kazakh official from the transport department said that the black box had been handed over to the government's investigation department.
Conspiracies surrounding the crash
Several conspiracy theories started circulating online about how the aircraft crashed. Initially, authorities said that the crash might have been caused due to a bird strike.
However, theories on social media suggested the the aircraft was brought down by a Russian air defence system.
A former expert at France's BEA air accident investigationagencyalso said there appeared to be "a lot of shrapnel" damage on the wreckage.
Also read | Russia’s anti-aircraft system shot down Azerbaijani jet over ‘mistaken identity’, US claims
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he told AFP that the damage was "reminiscent" of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was downed with a surface-to-air missile by Russia-backed rebels over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Meanwhile, Russia's aviation watchdog said on Friday that the plane had decided to reroute from its original destination in Chechnya amid dense fog and a local alert over Ukrainian drones.
(With inputs from agencies)