Dozens Killed After Russia Shoots Down Passenger Jet: Report

An Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed on Christmas, killing dozens of people, was shot down by Russian antiaircraft fire, according to an investigation.

An investigation by Azerbaijan indicated that the plane was “hit by a Russian antiaircraft missile, or shrapnel from it,” The Wall Street Journal reported. Separate aviation experts said that there was visible evidence that the plane had been hit by a munition.

The flight from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, was headed for Grozny, Russia when it “suddenly diverted course when flying over a part of Russia where the military had been shooting down Ukrainian drones,” the report said. “The plane went down in western Kazakhstan near the Caspian Sea city of Aktau.”

Sources familiar with the investigation told The Journal that Russia refused to allow the plane to land on its soil and that Russia intentionally jammed the plane’s GPS.

WATCH:

This is a full length video of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan. What the hell happened? pic.twitter.com/7CL6SwMne8

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 25, 2024

Of the 62 passengers and five crew members who were on board, 38 were killed and 29 survived — many of whom are in critical condition.

Those who survived said they heard a loud explosion that happened before the flight started having problems.

“Everyone heard the explosion,” said Subkhonkul Rakhimov, who survived the crash, in an interview with RT.

Russia’s Federal Air Traffic Agency claimed that the plane hit a flock of birds.

WSJ Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov highlighted a report from an Azerbaijani publication that highlighted how Russia turned the aircraft out of its airspace and what Azerbaijani officials believe the reason was:

As is known, the Grozny airport refused to allow the aircraft to land. Moreover, the Azerbaijani aircraft was also denied landing permissions at the airports in Makhachkala and Mineralnye Vody. The disoriented crew, subjected to air defence fire and electronic warfare (EW) systems, was redirected to the Kazakh city of Aktau. It can be assumed that this recommendation was given with one goal: to have the aircraft crash into the Caspian Sea, where all witnesses would perish and the aircraft would sink.

Kill and hide. Azerbaijani officials tell local media that Russia hit flight J2-8243 with an anti-aircraft missile and then jammed electronics and denied permission to land in three airports, steering the damaged plane into the Caspian Sea so that it would crash there and… pic.twitter.com/BuXePAteTJ

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) December 26, 2024

Zaur Shiriyev, a Baku-based nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that Azerbaijan expects “not only an apology but also an explanation as to why the pilots’ request to land was denied and why their GPS was jammed over the Caspian Sea—both of which could have saved the plane and its passengers.”

An Azerbaijan official told Reuters that no one believes that the aircraft was intentionally shot down but they do expect Russia to confess to what happened.

Sources told the publication that they believe a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system is what shot the plane down.

A U.S. official said that preliminary findings from the investigation showed that there were signs that the plane was hit by a Russian anti-aircraft system.

The incident was similar to a 2014 incident when Russia-backed separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, killing 298 people.