On Thursday, exclusive confirmation from Azerbaijani official sources that the accident was caused by a Russian surface-to-air missile.
The reports claim that during drone air activity above Grozny, the missile was fired at Flight 8432. The shrapnel struck the passengers and cabin crew when it burst next to the plane in midair.
Despite the pilots' requests for an emergency landing, the damaged aircraft was directed to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan, according to government sources who spoke to Euronews.
Data indicates that along the flight path above the sea, the plane's GPS navigation systems were jammed.
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The crash landing claimed the lives of Chief Flight Attendant Aliyeva, First Officer Kalyaninov, and Captain Kshnyakin. The Azerbaijani government declared on Friday that the three victims would be buried with official honours, calling them heroes. According to reports, Asadov and Rahimli, the other two flight attendants, survived and were receiving medical attention at the hospital on Friday.
Samir Rzayev, president of Azerbaijan Airlines, praised the crew's bravery. "We will always remember their courage and commitment to their work, even at the last moments. They are heroes because they prioritised preserving lives, and history will remember them," Rzayev said.
"She always told us to be proud of her," said Aliyeva's family, who was the flight's purser and perished in the catastrophe.
In a terrifying video captured by a traveller in midair, Aliyeva's voice can be heard as she attempts to console the cabin.
According to Azerbaijan Airlines, Captain Kshnyakin has over 15,000 hours of flight experience, 11,200 of which were as a captain.
Experts claim that he and First Officer Kalyaninov demonstrated exceptional airmanship by successfully piloting the downed aircraft over the Caspian Sea and making a crash landing within three kilometres from the runway at Aktau.
Aviation specialists concluded that the Embraer 190 lost most of its hydraulic systems, most likely including rudder control and that the left horizontal stabiliser looks to have been pierced by shrapnel based on the footage of the crash site and the wreckage.
Expert analysis of the footage reveals that the pilots had to change the aircraft's speed to control it, pitching down to increase speed and climbing to decrease it. This caused what is known as phugoid motion or oscillation.
The pilots were forced to try a crash landing without being able to flare because they did not appear to have the option of softly landing the aircraft.
The investigators will now examine the two black boxes recovered from the aircraft on Friday. "The audio of the radio communication between the dispatcher and crew has been collected, while the inspection of the crash site, which covers over 4,000 square kilometres, is almost complete, with police increasing security in the area," stated regional prosecutor Abylaibek Ordabayev.
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Nevertheless, what it claimed to be the transcript of the conversations between the Grozny air traffic controllers and the cockpit was released by the Russian investigative Telegram channel VChK-OGPU.
The excerpts claim that Captain Kshnyakin was heard repeatedly stating that he was losing control of the aircraft, that the GPS and hydraulic systems were malfunctioning, and that the cabin pressure was decreasing while he attempted to divert the damaged aircraft to other nearby airports.
Only the instantaneous contact during the approach to Grozny at the moment of the explosion near the aircraft is included in the excerpts. According to transcripts that have been obtained, the captain believed the explosion to be a bird attack.
According to Azerbaijan Airlines, which spoke to the Azerbaijani Trend news agency, the latest thorough technical examination of the aircraft was carried out in October of last year.
The airline claims that prior to the disaster, the Embraer 190, registered as 4K-AZ65 and built-in 2013, had done 9,949 landings and accrued around 15,257 flight hours.
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