Kazakh authorities to release preliminary Aktau crash findings next week

Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Kanat Bozumbayev, announced that preliminary findings of the investigation into the AZAL aircraft crash near Aktau may be made public as early as next week.

“The commission is working. Flight mode parameters and audio have been overlaid, and certain conclusions will be drawn. Relatives will need to verify the voices to confirm they belong to the pilots, among other tasks,” Bozumbayev stated in an interview with Kazakh media, per Caliber.Az.

He added, “I believe the preliminary results will be published by the Ministry of Transport next week. ICAO recommends that such reports be shared within 30 days of an air accident. While there are some challenges, we are working to meet that timeline.”

Bozumbayev also confirmed that the black boxes from the crashed aircraft had been fully decoded in Brazil and have now been returned to Kazakhstan for further analysis.

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8243, an Embraer 190AR plane, tragically crashed near the coastal city of Aktau in Kazakhstan while attempting an emergency landing on December 25, 2024. The flight was originally en route from Baku to the South Russian city of Grozny and carried 67 individuals, including 62 passengers and five crew members.

The investigation into the crash also revolves around the question of why the AZAL pilots were denied the possibility of landing in Russia and were therefore forced to cross the Caspian Sea all the way to Kazakhstan. The crash tragically claimed 38 lives, including three crew members while 29 people miraculously survived thanks to the efforts of the crew. 

Although initial reports tried to persuade the public that the cause of the crash was linked to a flock of birds, preliminary investigations suggest that the aircraft was struck by a Russian surface-to-air missile during efforts to repel a Ukrainian drone attack over Chechnya. The holes and markings on the outside of the plane are indicative of this narrative, with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev demanding the responsible party to come forward and take the blame for the catastrophe.

By Tamilla Hasanova