Disaster Dozens killed as passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan - No it wasn't a Boeing.

BBC LINK // ARCHIVE


Dozens of people have died after a passenger plane crashed with 67 people on board in Kazakhstan, local officials say.

Authorities in Azerbaijan, where the flight originated, say there were at least 30 survivors.

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 caught fire as it attempted to make an emergency landing near the Kazakh city of Aktau.

The plane was en route to Grozny in Russia but it was diverted due to fog, the airline told the BBC.

Video verified by Reuters news agency shows the plane heading towards the ground at high speed, with its landing gear down.

Seconds after it seems to attempt to land, a huge fireball erupts.

The airline said the plane "made an emergency landing" about 3km (1.9 miles) from Aktau.

It took off from the Azerbaijani capital Baku at 03:55 GMT on Wednesday, and crashed around 06:28, data from flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed.

There were 62 passengers and 5 crew members on board the Embraer 190 aircraft, the transport ministry said.

Those on board were mostly Azerbaijani nationals, but there were also some passengers from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Out of the 25 known survivors, 22 were taken to hospital, the emergency ministry said.

Unverified video footage showed emergency services pulling people out of the wreckage and survivors crawling out.

Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have launched investigations into the cause of the accident. Embraer told the BBC it was "ready to assist all relevant authorities".

The BBC has contacted Azerbaijan Airlines for comment.

The aircraft involved was an Embraer E190, the Brazilian company is a smaller rival to Boeing and Airbus, it traditionally has a strong safety record.

 

[R00T]

Oh we’re calling it an attempted landing now?

“Comrade understand: our missile did not impact their attempted landing in the slightest. Maybe they should have been better pilots.”

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

This hatch was open on the landing attempt

View attachment 6789886

I can’t see any visible damage here, the vatniks hit the other side and kinda weakly?

 

[CaptainAutism69]

I can’t see any visible damage here, the vatniks hit the other side and kinda weakly?

That was before the incident when the plane was happy and fine.
On landing, it was open for some reason. It's a trim maintaince hatch.

 

[(‿ˠ‿) ԅ(≖‿≖ԅ)]

I can’t see any visible damage here, the vatniks hit the other side and kinda weakly?

That wasn't a picture from the day of the crash, it was taken by a planespotter in Turkey a year ago

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/11227449

 

[FedPostalService]

That wasn't a picture from the day of the crash, it was taken by a planespotter in Turkey a year ago

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/11227449

So the Ottomans did it!

 

[CaptainAutism69]

Found a transcript from the pilots to tower on some air autist forum

e: AXY8243 proceeding to Baku.

08:11:58
d: AXY8243 with current heading, climb to 900 m
e: With current heading, climb to 900 m AXY8243

08:12:12
d: AXY8243 confirm, are you diverting to Baku as an alternate?
e: Confirm, we're leaving for Baku, backup AXY8243

08:12:29
d: AXY8243 First dial FL80 , and tell me if you can head straight to Pinta?
e: Dial FL80 , we'll tell you now AXY8243

08:12:48
e: AXY8243 Both GPS's are lost, we need vectoring.
d: AXY8243 Got it, right course 360.
e: Right course 360 AXY8243 Thank you.

08:14:15
d: AXY8243 dial FL150
u: Dial FL150 (inaudible) AXY8243
d: AXY8243 and increase climb
u: Increasing climb AXY8243
.....
08:16:05
u: Our controls have failed, bird strike in the cabin. Bird strike in the cabin (inaudible)

08:16:16
d: AXY8243 Got it, what kind of assistance do you need?

08:16:41
u: What's the weather like in Mineralnye Vody, please assist.
d: AXY8243 at 16 minute.
u: I don't understand
d: AXY8243 at 16 minute.
u: What at 16 minute?
d: AXY8243 repeat your message, I can't hear you well.

08:17:15
d: AXY8243 is it okay?
e: All right, proceeding to Mineralnye Vody.
d: AXY8243 copy, proceed on current heading until command.
e: Understood, proceed on current heading until command. Please, request weather Mineralnye Vody.
d: AXY8243 hold, climb to FL150 .
e: Climbing to FL150 .

08:18:29
d: AXY8243 execute left orbit.
e: Cannot execute, control is lost. Give us vectoring to Mineralnye Vody, and please give us weather Mineralnye Vody.
d: AXY8243 copy, hold. Left heading 030
e: Left heading 030

08:19:12
e: I can't maintain 150, we have increased cabin pressure
d: AXY8243 copy.

08:20:27
d: AXY8243 left heading 360
e: Left 360, my airplane is losing control.

d: AXY8243 for information weather Min-Vody: wind 120g, 6 m/s, visibility over 10 km, solid cloud cover base 180m, QNH1024hPa, band 11 in operation
e: Give us Makhachkala.

08:21:20
e: And Makhachkala.
d: AXY8243 decided to proceed to Makhachkala?
e: Yes sir, give me the weather forecast for Makhachkala.
d: AXY8243 stand by.

08:22:12
d: AXY8243 turn right course 110.
d: AXY8243 Grozny Tower.
e: On reception
d: AXY8243 turn right course 140.

08:22:57
e: Now the hydraulics have failed

08:23:03
d AXY8243 Grozny Tower.
e: On reception, we have a hydraulic failure.
d: AXY8243 roger. Can you follow the courses?
e: No, we can't. Give us a specific course, we'll go to Makhachkala.
d: AXY8243 left course 100, correction to the right course 100.
e: Right course 100. Makhachkala weather.

08:23:42
d: AXY8243 Makhachkala weather: wind 310 deg 2 m/s, visibility 3300, lower edge 750m, haze QNH1026hPa, runway in operation 32
e: Roger

08:24:26
d: AXY8243 confirm, have you declared a distress signal?
e: (Inaudible) did not understand (inaudible)

08:24:43
e: AXY8243 repeat.
d: AXY8243 is the aircraft okay?
e: The aircraft is okay.

08:24:55
e: Allow us to (inaudible)
d: AXY8243 repeat
e: (inaudible)

08:25:09
d: AXY8243 you are unintelligible, repeat your message.
e: (inaudible)

08:25:30
e: AXY8243 how was the reception? On reception
d: AXY8243 Grozny Tower receiving, we can hear you very poorly.
e: (inaudible)

08:25:47
e: AXY8243 permission to proceed at this altitude.
d: AXY8243 I do not see you on the control tower this morning, please advise your altitude.

08:26:10
E: Our altitude is 80
D: AXY8243 try to reach FL100
E: If we can.

08:27:00
D: AXY8243 Grozny Tower
E: On reception AXY8243
D: AXY8243 work Rostov Control 134.1
E: Rostov Control 134.1 AXY8243

Then the crew of the flight "Baku-Grozny" negotiated with the controller from Rostov.

 

[General Emílio Médici]

Damn this thread is a mess. Do we have proof of any of the two sides being blamed? Do we have proof of this being drone damage? Proof it was Russian AA?

 

[CaptainAutism69]

Damn this thread is a mess. Do we have proof of any of the two sides being blamed? Do we have proof of this being drone damage? Proof it was Russian AA?

No, just a bunch of people wanting to pin this on the side they don't like.

 

[Bowl of Ramen]

I’m a plane autist, but I’m staying out of this dumpster fire of a thread, with the exception of this: one should have nothing but admiration for those gentlemen flying that airplane. They’re in the same league of Haynes and Takahama, with passengers walking away alive from that hour of hell.

May they have ample reward in the next life.

 

[neger psykolog]

I’m a plane autist, but I’m staying out of this dumpster fire of a thread, with the exception of this: one should have nothing but admiration for those gentlemen flying that airplane. They’re in the same league of Haynes and Takahama, with passengers walking away alive from that hour of hell.

May they have ample reward in the next life.

That as well as that Brazilian plane. I read the Wikipedia page for it and was surprised how few safety incidents it has had. So respect to the designers for what looks like a super reliable plane.

 

[Hooked on phobics]

'The damage in this plane's tail seems consistent with Russian missiles

Again what makes you SO sure it was a Russian arm, and not an arm of the Kazakhstan, or some Muslim militants? Or even other group?

Basically all I'm seeing known here is theres a crash, and theres shrapnel marks. Last I check russians aren't the only ones who have shrapnel.

I really don't like so adamantly jumping to conclusions, and in this case it comes off as a default "fuck duh russians" sperging. And I gotta admit both location, and political scenario wise, I could imagine at LEAST 3 groups who MIGHT shoot down a plane.

 

[Bowl of Ramen]

That as well as that Brazilian plane. I read the Wikipedia page for it and was surprised how few safety incidents it has had. So respect to the designers for what looks like a super reliable plane.

I love me an E190! I’m a huge Embraer fan. They’re the dark horse coming up behind Boeing and Airbus - there’s talk of a long range narrowbody in the works. I’ll be the first to take a ride. Fantastic company.

Brazilians are fanatical aviation autists. That helps.

 

[FedPostalService]

That as well as that Brazilian plane. I read the Wikipedia page for it and was surprised how few safety incidents it has had. So respect to the designers for what looks like a super reliable plane.

Embraer are a really good manufacturer despite being from a tranny shithole. Their biz jets has a great safety record too.

The last Embraer “accident” I can remember was a Legacy 600 magically going into a freefall with totally not vapor trails leading to it with Prigozhin on board.

 

[Kiska]

I love me an E190! I’m a huge Embraer fan. They’re the dark horse coming up behind Boeing and Airbus - there’s talk of a long range narrowbody in the works. I’ll be the first to take a ride. Fantastic company.

Yeah same, I like embraer on long flights more than boeing for commercial, mainly because they're smaller and only have 2 seats to a row throughout the entire plane and maybe I've gotten lucky but they also always are empty asf.

 

[Bowl of Ramen]

Yeah same, I like embraer on long flights more than boeing for commercial, mainly because they're smaller and only have 2 seats to a row throughout the entire plane and maybe I've gotten lucky but they also always are empty asf.

If you want to have a unique notch on your belt, Breeze Airways flies the E195, and they’re the only U.S. carrier to do so. Just for rarity’s sake, you should hop on board. Breeze is a fine experience as well. Founded by a great Brazilian might I add.

 

[FedPostalService]

Fellow aeroplane autists: do we have a thread to sperg about our favourite aeroplanes so I don’t shit up this thread?

 

[Bowl of Ramen]

Fellow aeroplane autists: do we have a thread to sperg about our favourite aeroplanes so I don’t shit up this thread?

Actually, no. We should!

 

[KiwiFuzz2]

New York Times:

Plane Crash Investigators Focus on Russian Air Defenses as Possible Cause​

Russian aviation authorities said the Azerbaijan Airlines plane had hit a flock of birds. But some experts cast doubt on that account, pointing to footage showing apparent holes in the fuselage.

Spoiler: Article Text

As authorities in several countries tried to determine what caused the deadly crash of a passenger airplane in Kazakhstan, investigators and experts on Thursday were focusing on the possibility that a Russian air defense system had struck the plane, casting doubt on a Russian agency’s contention that the jet had hit a flock of birds.

Aviation experts said images of the crash site show holes in the plane’s fuselage that appeared unlikely to have been caused by birds. The Azerbaijan Airlines jet had been flying on Wednesday morning from Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, to Grozny, in Russia’s Chechnya republic, at a time when drone strikes were taking place around Grozny and Russian air defense systems were responding, according to residents and local news media reports.

Two Azerbaijanis briefed on a government inquiry said that Azerbaijani officials now believe that a Russian Pantsir-S defense system damaged the plane. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. Caliber, a news outlet in Azerbaijan that is close to the government, also reported that the country’s investigators believe a Russian Pantsir system was responsible.

The Kremlin warned against making any immediate judgments about the cause. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters earlier Thursday: “The investigation is ongoing. We need to wait for its conclusions.”

Flightradar24, a flight tracking service, said that the Embraer 190 jet had been subjected to radar jamming and spoofing near Grozny, and for part of its journey did not send radar information. It said the available data indicated the plane had problems with altitude control, and cited images from the crash site that it said showed “puncture damage” to part of the aircraft.

What you should know. The Times makes a careful decision any time it uses an anonymous source. The information the source supplies must be newsworthy and give readers genuine insight.

The plane crashed while trying to make an emergency landing in Aktau, Kazakhstan, about 260 miles east of Grozny, on the shore of the Caspian Sea. Of the 62 passengers and five crew members on board, 38 were killed, according to Kazakhstan’s authorities.

Besides Azerbaijan and Russia, authorities in Kazakhstan said they had opened a criminal investigation into the crash. Kazakhstan’s transportation authority said in a statement on Thursday that the plane’s manufacturer, the Brazilian jet maker Embraer, would also be examining the crash along with the Brazilian Air Force.

While en route to Grozny, the flight was diverted because of fog, Russian state news agencies reported. Soon after the crash, Russia’s state aviation authority said that the plane had hit a flock of birds, causing it to attempt an emergency landing, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

But aviation experts and military observers expressed skepticism of that account, citing the recent military activity in the area near the flight path, the available information from aviation sources and videos and images posted by survivors.

The area around Grozny has been the scene of aerial battles in recent weeks involving drones, usually launched by Ukraine, and Russian air defenses. Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security company, said in a note to its clients on Wednesday that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane had likely been struck by Russian air defenses “during an incident of misidentification.”
Image

Heinrich Grossbongardt, an aviation industry expert in Hamburg, Germany, said that data showing the plane’s trajectory, and footage of the aircraft, suggested that its electrical and hydraulic systems had been damaged, rendering the plane uncontrollable. According to Flightradar24, data received from the plane showed that its vertical speed oscillated more than 100 times during the final 74 minutes of the flight.

“You see an airplane flying wild, wild maneuvers with strong fluctuations in the course and in the flight altitude,” Mr. Grossbongardt said in an interview.

Had birds hit the engines, it could have caused them to fail, leading to a loss of power but still leaving the plane controllable, as happened on Jan. 15, 2009, to US Airways Flight 1549, which struck a flock of birds shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City, he said.
“We saw that on the Hudson River,” Mr. Grossbongardt said, referring to the pilots’ ability to successfully land on the water, saving the lives of all 155 people on board. “Here, a flock of birds? No way.”

He also cited video footage and images posted to social media that showed holes in the plane’s tail area as indicating damage to the plane’s control systems. The New York Times has not independently verified the video or images.

Some Russian pro-military bloggers have also pointed the finger at Russian air defenses. Yuri Podolyaka, a popular blogger, said in a post on Telegram on Wednesday that that the airplane likely had been “incidentally shot down by an air defense system.”

Another Telegram channel, Fighterbomber, which is believed to be run by Capt. Ilya Tumanov of the Russian Army, posted a video that it said showed it was unlikely that a bird strike had punctured the fuselage.

Azerbaijan Airlines said that it was suspending flights from Baku to Grozny and Makhachkala, in neighboring Dagestan, until investigations into the crash had concluded.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/world/asia/investigators-plane-crash-kazakhstan.html

(The archive isn't showing the most recent version of the article. Lame.)

https://archive.ph/jXeaJ

 

[mindlessobserver]

If you want to have a unique notch on your belt, Breeze Airways flies the E195, and they’re the only U.S. carrier to do so. Just for rarity’s sake, you should hop on board. Breeze is a fine experience as well. Founded by a great Brazilian might I add.

Cheap too. Hope you like flying through Richmond VA though. Probably why they are cheap. Can't imagine the fees for using Richmond as a hub are very high. But there is no cheaper way to go from the West Coast to the East.

 

[God's drunkest driver]

Is all of the bird strike talk just politisperging in response to accusations against russia? Any human being with a functioning frontal lobe will see those photos of the tail section of this aircraft and correctly reason that it was shot down, regardless of the origin of the missile. An uncontained engine failure from a bird strike (fat chance) peppered the tail that is 50ft aft of the engines with small shrapnel pieces? And then there's all of the goyslop consooming moviebrain retards who think that if something is hit by air defences it must explode and come down in pieces? Shrapnel damage has been the de facto standard for air defenses since before WW2. The standard air defense doctrine is that it is better to do moderate damage with shrapnel and send the target back to base than to miss with something that would atomize the target if it had hit directly. Whether it's an guided missile or AAA, it's far harder to hit a target directly than to detonate something nearby and blast it with shrapnel.