Putin admits that Russia shot down an Embraer plane in Kazakhstan; accident killed 38 people

Accident with an Embraer plane in Kazakhstan killed 38 people in December 2024. The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, admitted this Thursday (9) that Russian air defenses were responsible for downing an Embraer plane in Kazakhstan. The accident, in December last year, killed 38 people. The statement was made during a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. Putin said two Russian missiles detonated next to the Azerbaijan Airlines plane after Ukrainian drones entered the country’s airspace. “The two missiles launched did not hit the plane directly. If that had happened, it would have fallen on the spot. But they exploded, perhaps as a self-destruction measure, a few meters away, about 10 meters. And, thus, the damage was caused, not by the warheads, but probably by the debris of the missiles themselves”, he detailed. “That’s why the pilot perceived the collision as a flock of birds, which he reported to Russian air traffic controllers, and all of this is recorded in so-called ‘black boxes,'” Putin continued. Aliyev, who criticized Russia at the time of the accident, accusing it of trying to cover up its cause, on Thursday thanked Putin for personally monitoring the progress of the investigation. The Russian president also promised compensation to those affected and apologized: “Of course, everything necessary in such tragic cases will be done by the Russian side in terms of compensation and a legal assessment of all official issues will be made. It is our duty, I repeat once again… to make an objective assessment of everything that happened and identify the true causes.” The aircraft had left Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and was destined for the Russian city of Grozny, capital of Chechnya. The airline stated that the Embraer 190 aircraft, which was flying J2-8243, was forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 km from the Kazakh city of Aktau. Investigation found that crash was caused by ‘external objects’ Plane manufactured by Embraer crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, 2024 Azamat Sarsenbayev/Reuters In February, the government of Kazakhstan released a preliminary report on the accident investigation and pointed out that the crash could have been caused by external objects, but that “further research and examinations were necessary to determine the nature and origin of the damage caused by these objects.” According to the document, the pilots requested a change in landing site, reporting that the plane had been hit by birds and that two seats had exploded. The report does not mention missiles, but one of the experts’ suspicions was that the plane could have been hit by shrapnel from Russia’s anti-aircraft defense system, since, a few days after the accident, the Russian government admitted that three cities were under attack by Ukrainian drones and the defense systems acted to repel these attacks. Also according to the report, ”an initial examination of the fragments revealed multiple penetrating and non-penetrating damage of various sizes and shapes to the tail section, fuselage, fin and stabilizer, elevator and rudder. Similar damage was found to the aircraft’s left engine and left wing. Perforations in the Embraer plane that crashed in Kazakhstan in December 2024 Reproduction/Preliminary report by the government of Azerbaijan Brazilian Investigation The analysis of data from the plane’s black box was carried out in Brazil, the country where Embraer, the company that manufactures the plane, is based. The Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (Cenipa) concluded on January 6 the analysis of the Embraer plane’s black boxes. The equipment arrived on Brazilian soil on January 1st and began to be analyzed the following day. The extracted data was handed over to the Kazakh Aviation Accident Investigation Authority – the agency responsible for analyzing and investigating the accident. There are still no details about what was heard in the recordings. “All analysis and conclusions that will be published in the Final Report of this aeronautical investigation are the exclusive responsibility of the Kazakhstan Investigation Authority,” the FAB said at the time. The aircraft had left Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and was destined for the Russian city of Grozny, capital of Chechnya. Art/ g1

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