By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MOSCOW/BAKU/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russia’s aviation authority claimed Friday that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed on Wednesday “deviated” from its planned destination of Grozny “due to heavy fog and Ukrainian drones.”
Rosaviatsia’s statement came accusations that the aircraft had come under Russian air defense fire before it crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.
As the investigation continued, Azerbaijan observed a national “day of mourning” for the victims of the tragedy, which also left all 29 survivors injured.
Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was en route from Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for unclear reasons.
Worthy News learned it soon crashed while trying to land in Kazakhstan’s southwestern city of Aktau. Azerbaijan Airlines suggested that the crash occurred due to “external physical and technical interference.”
A survivor of the crash said he heard “a loud bang” as the plane began its descent into Grozny, Chechnya. “After the bang, the plane started behaving strangely,” the passenger said. “I thought the aircraft would break apart and that I would die.”
AIRCRAFT DESCENDING
After crossing the Caspian Sea, the plane went down about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from Aktau.
Cellphone footage showed the aircraft descending steeply before smashing into the ground in a fireball.
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said earlier that the pilots diverted to Aktau after “a bird strike.”
However, the agency changed that narrative Friday after commentators alleged that holes in the plane’s tail section indicated it could have come under fire from Russian air defense systems fending off a Ukrainian drone attack.
Both countries have been involved in Europe’s bloodiest war in decades after Russia’s military invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukrainian drones had previously attacked Grozny, the provincial capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and other regions in the country’s North Caucasus.
DRONE ATTACK
Some Russian media claimed that another drone attack on Chechnya happened on Wednesday, although it wasn’t officially confirmed.
Concerns about air safety for civilian aircraft in the region prompted Osprey Flight Solutions, a Britain-based aviation security firm, to warn its clients that a Russian military air-defense system likely shot down the “Azerbaijan Airlines flight.”
Osprey analyzes carriers still flying into Russia after Western airlines halted their flights during the war.
The company’s CEO, Andrew Nicholson, said that Osprey had issued more than 200 alerts regarding drone attacks and air defense systems in Russia during the war.
But those warnings came too late for those aboard Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190.
Kazakh officials said the passengers on the airplane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs, and three Kyrgyzstan nationals.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a sweeping series of airstrikes across southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley on Monday, targeting what it described as Hezbollah sites used for rocket launches and the production and storage of strategic weapons. The attacks marked one of the most extensive Israeli operations in Lebanon in months, killing at least three Hezbollah operatives in the past 24 hours, according to the military.
Residents on Luzon Island, the largest and most populated island of the Philippines, assessed the damage early Monday after a sleepless night when Super Typhoon Fung-wong, locally known as Uwan, killed at least two people and injured several others.
More than 50 prominent Christian leaders are calling on President Trump to directly confront Syria’s new president about the ongoing persecution of religious minorities when the two leaders meet Monday at the White House, marking a historic first for U.S.-Syria relations.
In a decisive break from Democratic obstruction that has paralyzed the federal government for over a month, the U.S. Senate on Sunday night voted 60-40 to advance legislation ending the record-breaking 40-day government shutdown, marking a significant victory for Republican fiscal discipline and President Donald Trump’s healthcare reform agenda.
A group of Hamas fighters trapped inside tunnels on the Israeli-controlled side of the Rafah ceasefire line have vowed not to surrender to Israeli forces, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced Sunday, in a move that could jeopardize the fragile month-old ceasefire in Gaza.
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered an extraordinary 2,700-year-old pottery fragment inscribed with Assyrian cuneiform near the Temple Mount — the first written evidence of direct contact between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah ever discovered in the city. The find, announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), offers striking confirmation of the biblical narrative of King Hezekiah’s resistance to Assyrian domination recorded in II Kings 18.
Iranian officials are warning of imminent water rationing—and even the potential evacuation of Tehran—as the nation faces its worst drought in nearly a century.