The Azerbaijan Airlines flight which crashed on Christmas while attempting to make an emergency landing may have been shot down by Russian Air Defences according to early video evidence from inside the aircraft and damage to the fuselage found that is consistent with anti-aircraft missiles.
The Embraer E190 was operating a flight from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny, Russia when it was forced to divert due to fog. It then crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan while attempting to make an emergency landing killing 38 of the 67 people onboard.
Video from onboard the aircraft shows it having depressurised before the crash, with oxygen masks hanging from its overhead locations, but the aircraft is seemingly under control.
Another video shows the aircraft attempting an emergency landing with the landing gear deployed but in a starboard (right) wing-down angle as it approached the ground. Despite the best efforts of the pilots to level the plan out, the aircraft broke up on impact.
Images of the fuselage from the crash site show peppered marks on the fuselage which are consistent with an air defence missile having exploded nearby.
Russian State Media immediately portrayed the aircraft as having hit a flock of birds after it diverted from Grozny. However, bird strikes generally damage the nose of an aircraft and the engines rather than the mid or rear fuselage.
This would also not be the first time Russian Air Defence systems have shot down a civilian airliner. In 2014 Russian forces shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 killing all onboard believing it to be a Ukrainian military aircraft.
An investigation is now underway by Azerbaijan authorities to confirm the cause of the incident.
