Kazakhstan refuses to comment on unofficial reports of plane crash near Aktau

The Kazakh Ministry of Transport has stated that it will refrain from commenting on unofficial information regarding the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) aircraft near Aktau, pending the release of an official report.

In a statement issued by the ministry’s press service, officials clarified that they would not engage with unverified data circulating online, Caliber.Az reports.

"Until the publication of the preliminary report, the commission will not comment on data from the internet, which does not have any official source," the ministry emphasized.

The tragic crash occurred on December 25, 2024, when Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8243, en route from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, crashed during an emergency landing attempt near Aktau. The flight carried 67 people, including 62 passengers and five crew members. Among the passengers were 42 Azerbaijani, 16 Russian, six Kazakh, and three Kyrgyz nationals. The crash claimed the lives of 38 people, while 29 survived, including two crew members, were rescued. Tragically, three of the five crew members perished.

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.

On December 28, the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan had a telephone conversation. President Putin expressed condolences and apologised to President Aliyev for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace. The Azerbaijani president demanded Putin bring to justice those responsible and provide compensation to Baku, as well as to the injured passengers and crew members.

On January 7, 2025, the Brazilian Air Force's Aviation Accident Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) reported that it had completed the decoding of the aircraft's flight recorders. "The extraction, collection, and verification of data from the two flight recorders have been successfully completed," CENIPA confirmed.

The black boxes of the AZAL passenger plane, which crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, have been delivered to Kazakhstan from Brazil and handed over to the authorized commission for further investigation.

General Prosecutor’s Office of Kazakhstan confirmed that a state commission was established on the day of the crash to investigate the incident,

The commission is responsible for decoding the flight recorders as part of the ongoing inquiry.

By Vafa Guliyeva