On 25 December 2024, an Embraer passenger plane (registration 4K-AZ65) operated by Azerbaijan Airlines as Flight 8243 was en route from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Chechnya, in southern Russia. According to initial reports from the Russian aviation regulator, the aircraft declared an emergency, likely due to a bird strike. However, the nearest Russian airport suitable for an emergency landing was reportedly closed at the time. Flight data from FlightRadar24 shows that a portion of the plane’s flight path over southern Russia went unrecorded. This region has recently seen increased activity from Russian air defense systems countering Ukrainian drone attacks in Chechnya. The aircraft subsequently changed course, diverting over the Caspian Sea. Its route over the sea also went unrecorded before the plane ultimately crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan while attempting an emergency landing. The crash claimed the lives of 38 people out of the 67 on board, which included 62 passengers and 5 crew members.
One of four Azerbaijani sources familiar with the preliminary findings of the Azerbaijani accident investigation told Reuters that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane was hit by a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system, and that its GPS navigation system and aircraft communications were disrupted. The source also noted that no one was suggesting that this was done intentionally. The other three sources confirmed the same preliminary conclusions of the investigation to Reuters. Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister said he could neither confirm nor deny that Russian air defenses had shot down the plane, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was wrong and inappropriate to comment, hypothesize and draw conclusions before the official investigation is complete.
Airlines have been warned that the wreckage of the plane suggests that the plane was hit by some form of anti-aircraft fire in southern Russia, as is evident in video footage of the crash site, which shows shrapnel damage to the tail section of the plane.
NATO has called from Brussels for a full investigation into the cause of this serious accident.
There are many questions that have yet to be answered by a full investigation. It is necessary to confirm the very cause of the event that led to the damage to the plane, as well as the reason that the forced landing was not made possible on the territory of southern Russia, but the damaged plane was sent to the opposite shore of the Caspian Lake in Kazakhstan, where it crashed.
