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The nationwide airways of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have suspended some flights to Russia after proof advised an Azerbaijani airplane had been downed by Russian air defence techniques.
The Kazakh airline, Qazaq Air, stated on Friday it suspended its Astana to Ekaterinburg route, in response to the Kazinform information company, whereas Azerbaijan Airways suspended flights to seven cities within the south of Russia.
The measures have been taken after an Azerbaijan Airways flight from Baku to Russia’s regional capital, Grozny, was diverted throughout the Caspian Sea and crash-landed close to Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 of the 67 individuals on board.
Video of the fuselage of the crashed plane has proven a number of puncture marks in step with hearth from an anti-aircraft system. There’s additionally proof that Russia was jamming the GPS navigation system close to Grozny on the time, apparently to defend in opposition to an assault by Ukrainian drones.
Qazaq Air stated it was suspending flights to Ekaterinburg till January 27 pending an “ongoing threat evaluation” of flights to Russia. Azerbaijan Airways stated it halted flights to Grozny and different southern Russian cities till completion of an investigation into the crash.
Israel’s flag-carrier, El Al, on Thursday additionally introduced it was suspending flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow pending a security evaluation.
Russia had insisted the plane was unable to land in Grozny due to heavy fog and that the plane had hit a flock of birds. Native authorities in Russia’s close by North Ossetia area introduced an assault by Ukrainian drones, certainly one of which was shot down, killing a girl on the bottom. However the Kommersant newspaper reported there was no “heavy fog” forecast for Grozny on the time.
The top of Russia’s Rosaviatsia aviation company, Dmitry Yadrov, on Thursday stated the situations round Grozny had been “very tough” amid assaults from Ukrainian fight drones.
Requested on Friday about experiences of a missile strike, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated he had nothing so as to add.
The incident has invoked comparisons with Malaysia Airways flight MH17 being shot down over Ukraine in 2014. An investigation concluded that crash, which killed all 298 individuals on board, was the results of the firing of an air defence missile by Russia-controlled fighters in japanese Ukraine.
It isn’t clear how lengthy Kazakhstan’s investigation into the crash will take, or how free it will likely be to succeed in conclusions in regards to the trigger. The probe contains investigators from Russia and Azerbaijan, in response to Kazakh officers.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated it was too early to touch upon what had triggered the crash.
The plane kind concerned — an Embraer-190 regional jet — was beforehand considered one of many world’s most secure civil plane.
A senior US official has stated there are early indications a Russian anti-aircraft system may need struck the flight.
Senior Ukrainian officers instructed the Monetary Instances additionally they believed the plane was in all probability hit by an air defence missile. Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian nationwide safety and defence council official, posted on Telegram on Thursday that Russia ought to have closed the airspace over Grozny, given the operations it was endeavor, however didn’t achieve this.
“The airplane was broken by the Russians and despatched to Kazakhstan, as a substitute of creating an emergency touchdown in Grozny and saving individuals’s lives,” he wrote.
Rasim Musabekov, a member of Azerbaijan’s parliament, has referred to as for Russia to apologise.
“The airplane was shot down in Russian territory, within the skies over Grozny, and this can’t be denied,” Musabekov instructed the Turan information company. “That is how civilised relations work. If air defence techniques are energetic, the airport needs to be closed, and warnings needs to be issued to forestall flights to the world.”
