Plane crash
After crash: Baku suspends flights to many Russian destinations
The investigation into the cause of the crash of a passenger plane in Kazakhstan is still ongoing. But this is already having consequences for Russia’s air traffic.
After an Azerbaijani passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan with 67 people on board, Azerbaijan Airlines is suspending its connections to seven Russian cities. From this Saturday there will be no more flights to Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara, Mineralnye Vody, Grozny and Makhachkala, the company announced in Baku, according to the Azerbaijani news agency Turan. The Russian aviation authority had previously temporarily not allowed take-offs and landings at some airports in the country for safety reasons. No details were given.
In Russia, airports repeatedly stop operating temporarily when air defenses are deployed during Ukrainian drone attacks. According to Azerbaijan Airlines, a plane returned to Baku on Friday because the airspace at the Russian destination airport Mineralnye Vody in the North Caucasus was closed.
After the passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, there are suspicions that the plane may have been damaged by an anti-aircraft missile explosion in the North Caucasus before its planned landing in Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. The investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing. So far there are no official results on this. Azerbaijani state media reported that a delegation from the Prosecutor General’s Office from Baku was traveling to Grozny as part of the investigation.
Kazakh company suspends flights to Yekaterinburg
According to the announcement, Azerbaijan Airlines will continue to fly to the airports in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Astrakhan, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. In Kazakhstan, the airline Qazaq Air suspended flights from the capital Astana to the Russian metropolis of Yekaterinburg in the Urals for a month for safety reasons. Flights to Omsk and Novosibirsk in Siberia are still available, it was said.
While attempting to land, the Azerbaijani Embraer 190 aircraft crashed on Wednesday near the Kazakh city of Aktau on the coast of the Caspian Sea. 38 people on board were killed and there were 29 survivors. Photos of the tail section of the accident plane show damage that resembles shrapnel impact holes from anti-aircraft weapons. According to Kazakh information, the Embraer’s two flight recorders were found on Thursday.
dpa
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
