Azerbaijan Airlines plane shot down by Russian missile on Xmas Day

[toucana]

The crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E-190 civilian airliner in Kazakhstan on 25 December 2024 appears to have been a shoot-down caused by a Russian Pantsir - S1 (Панцирь-С1)  type air-defence missile that detonated near the tail of the plane, destroying the hydraulic fluid reservoirs of all three sub-systems onboard. Shrapnel damage can be clearly seen in the tail section of the plane in a number of video clips of the crash site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J04wUKZUCI

The loss of hydraulic line inputs to all flight control surfaces left the crew with no means of controlling the plane other than by using throttle levers to vary the thrust of the two engines - which explains the phugoid oscillation seen in videos of the final moments before the plane crashed - where the plane is alternately pitching nose-up and then nose down, before banking uncontrollably into the ground. It’s very similar to the ‘Impossible Landing’ scenario that occurred in the 1989 United Airlines Flight 232 disaster at Sioux City Iowa - which was also caused by a total hydraulic failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232

The plane departed from Baku in Georgia at 03.55  UTC on a scheduled flight to Grozny in Chechnya Russia. The plane apparently diverted twice from its planned landing site because of poor weather. Flightradar 24 then suggests they were attacked at around 06.08 UTC on the western Caspian sea coast. The pilots issued a 7700 squawk code to declare an in-flight emergency, and diverted due east across the Caspian sea to attempt an emergency landing in Kazakhstan. Photos from inside the passenger cabin show that the oxygen masks had dropped, so the crew were dealing with a depressurisation event as well as the loss of flight controls. The plane crashed while attempting an emergency landing at Aktau airport in Kazakhstan at 06.28 UTC. There are said to be 29 survivors from the 62 passengers and 5 flight crew onboard.

Russian sources have attempted to blame the incident on a ‘bird strike’, but the Caspian Sea area where  it occurred is extensively used by Russian TU-25 bombers to launch cruise missiles against Ukraine. Russian forces routinely jam the GPS in that area, and maintain heavy air-defences against Ukrainian long range drones. US airliners are not allowed to fly there

Edited December 26, 2024 by toucana
corrected 'United Airlines' para 2

[iNow]

Thank goodness DJT will soon take office and truly hold Putins feet to the fire /sarcasm

[toucana]

Correction:- Baku[GYD], aka Heydar Aliyev International Airport is in Azerbaijan, not in neighbouring Georgia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heydar_Aliyev_International_Airport

[Genady]

27 minutes ago, toucana said:

Correction:- Baku[GYD], aka Heydar Aliyev International Airport is in Azerbaijan, not in neighbouring Georgia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heydar_Aliyev_International_Airport

As Baku native, I could be offended (I am not.)

[toucana]

14 hours ago, Genady said:

As Baku native, I could be offended (I am not.)

I very much hope that no-one here had friends or loved ones on that flight. Reuters sources have subsequently confirmed it was a Russian Pantsir-S air defence missile that  brought the plane down.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/azerbaijan-airlines-flight-was-downed-by-russian-air-defence-system-four-sources-2024-12-26/

[Ariodos]

Has anyone seen russian ‘We don't need anything foreign in the sky’ video yet?
The cynicism is off the charts.

[toucana]

There is a growing suspicion that Russian ATC controllers refused to give the Azerbaijan Airlines plane landing permissions at two nearby Russian airports, and quite deliberately sent it eastwards out over the Caspian Sea towards Kazakhstan, in the hope that the crippled plane would crash into the sea - thus destroying any physical evidence of the Russian missile strike.