AZAL crash probe reaches final stage: Key tests awaited abroad

Kazakhstan is awaiting the findings of two foreign laboratories before releasing the final report on the crash of the AZAL aircraft near Aktau, the country’s Ministry of Transport announced via Kazakh media.

Under ICAO standards, the final conclusions of any air-crash investigation must be made public within 12 months of the incident.

The AZAL flight, en route from Baku to Grozny with 69 people on board, including five crew members, went down near Aktau. The passengers consisted of 42 Azerbaijani nationals, 15 Russians, six citizens of Kazakhstan, and three Kyrgyz nationals. A total of 38 people, among them three crew members, were killed. Twenty-nine individuals, including two members of the crew, survived.

Initial assessments indicated that the aircraft had been hit by a Russian Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile during Russian air defence activity to counter an incoming Ukrainian drone over Chechnya.

Brazil completed the decoding of the flight recorders on January 7, and Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport issued a preliminary report on February 4. That document provided a detailed timeline of the disaster and included photographs illustrating the damage sustained by the aircraft.

As Caliber.Az reported on January 24, investigators identified both the commander who authorised the missile launch and the operator who fired it. The investigation reaffirmed that the aircraft had been struck by a Pantsir-S1 missile. It also established that prior to impact, the aircraft had been affected by electronic warfare systems, which disrupted its navigation instruments and significantly impeded the crew’s ability to maintain control.

The most recent development came on October 9, when Russian President Vladimir Putin informed President Ilham Aliyev that Russia would conduct a legal evaluation of the actions of all officials involved in the incident.

By Tamilla Hasanova