Airline praises pilots in crash-landing in which both died but nearly half of passengers survived

• An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan, killing 38, including both pilots.

• It is noteworthy that almost half of the passengers – 29 people – survived.

• The airline’s president praised the “heroism” of the pilots and crew while speaking to reporters.

The president of Azerbaijan Airlines praised the pilots of flight J2-8243 after the flight with 67 people, crashed down in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

Although both pilots were among the 38 fatalities reported by the Kazakh authorities, almost half of the passengers – 29 people – survived.

Samir Rzayev, who heads the airline, also known as AZAL, told reporters on Wednesday that the two pilots’ “heroism will never be forgotten.”

“While this tragic accident brought a significant loss to our nation, the crew’s valiant dedication to their duties until the last moment and their prioritization of human life have immortalized their names in history,” Rzayev said. according to the Azerbaijani news agency Report.

Rzayev said the pilots had a combined total of over 15,000 flight hours and that the plane had recently passed a technical inspection.

“Despite these measures, the causes of the incident are still under investigation,” Rzayev added.

The Associated Press wrote one video of the crash showing some passengers being pulled from the rear of the plane, an area traditionally safer in a crash.

According to a 2015 analysis by Time Magazine of US federal data from 1985 to 2000, the seats in the back of the plane had a 32% death rate, compared to 39% in the middle and 38% in the front. The rear middle seats had the lowest fatality rate at 28%.

Still, the circumstances surrounding the crash play a bigger role, like how a jet plane lands and the actions of its pilots.

The Embraer 190 The jet had departed from Baku, Azerbaijan, early Wednesday bound for Grozny, Russia.

Adverse weather conditions led to a diversion, the airline told BBC News. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows that the plane made a crash landing at around 06:28 local time near Aktau, Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan’s Senate chairman, Ashimbayev Maulen, told Reuters on Thursday that the cause of the crash was still unknown.

Preliminary information from Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, suggested that the plane was diverted after a bird strike caused an emergency on board, according to AP.

And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned against speculating about the cause of the crash before the end of an investigation. according to Russian state media RIA Novosti.

However, Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Combating Disinformation, placed the blame on Russia. On Wednesday evening he demanded an X post that the commercial airline was “shot down by a Russian air defense system.”

In the post, he said there is video footage from inside the plane showing “punctured life jackets and other injuries.”

Others have also suggested Russian involvement.

Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security company, told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the plane may have been damaged by a Russian anti-missile system. The firm cited footage of the crash, the apparent damage to the plane and recent military activity in the area.

“Incidents of civilian airliners being misidentified and shot down by air defense systems are not unprecedented in the region,” said a critical warning issued by Osprey and provided to Business Insider.

Oliver Alexander, an OSINT analyst, said in a message to BI that “at this time, I don’t think there is enough evidence available to say definitively what exactly happened (type of missile, etc.).”

But he added that “all the evidence I have seen indicates that the aircraft was hit by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft missile which severely damaged the elevator and rudder controls.”

Ukrainian drones have attacked Grozny in recent weeks, and the governor of the Russian region of North Ossetia said in a telegram post on Wednesday that there were Ukrainian drone strikes carried out in a number of regions of the North Caucasian Federal District that day.

The district includes Grozny and the surrounding area.

The post specifically mentioned a drone that was taken down in Vladikavkas, about 70 miles west of Grozny.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in a statement: “There are videos of the plane crash available in the media and on social networks and everyone can see them. But the reasons for the crash are not yet known to us.”

It would not be the first time Russia was blamed for the downing of a passenger plane.

In 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was hit by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. Investigators said the missile system used originated in Russia and was fired from a part of Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed forces.

Russia has denied involvement in the MH17 crash.

Azerbaijan Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Rzayev, the airline’s president, told reporters that the plane’s black box had been recovered and that “its analysis is being carried out in accordance with international aviation standards.”

Embraer, which built the plane that crashed Wednesday, said in a statement that it was “deeply saddened” by the crash and was working closely with relevant authorities to support the investigation.

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