Foreign News
Azerbaijan says plane hit by ‘external interference’ over Russia before crash
Azerbaijan’s transport minister has said the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed on 25 December was subjected to “external interference” and damaged inside and out, as it tried to land in Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya.
“All the survivors without exception stated they heard three blast sounds when the aircraft was above Grozny,” said Rashad Nabiyev.
The plane is thought to have come under fire from Russian air defence systems before being diverted across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan, where it crashed with the loss of 38 lives.
The Kremlin has refused to comment, but the head of Russia’s civil aviation agency said the situation in Grozny was “very complicated” at the time and a closed-skies protocol had been put in place.
“Ukrainian combat drones were launching terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” said Dmitry Yadrov, head of Rosaviatsia, in a video statement posted on Russia’s Tass news agency.
“Because of this a ‘Carpet plan’ was introduced in the area of Grozny airport, providing for the immediate departure of all aircraft from the specified area,” he said. “In addition, there was dense fog in the area of Grozny airport.”
Later on Friday White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US had seen “early indications” that the plane may have been downed by Russian air defence, but declined to comment further.
The Washington Post reported Kirby had said the indications the US had seen went beyond the widely-circulated photos of the damaged plane.
Ukrainian presidential spokesman Andriy Yermak has said Russia must be held responsible.
Azerbajian Airlines said on Friday that a preliminary inquiry had blamed both “physical and technical external interference”, without going into details.
However, aviation experts and others in Azerbaijan believe the plane’s GPS systems were affected by electronic jamming and it was then damaged by shrapnel from Russian air-defence missile blasts.
The transport minister said investigators would now examine “what kind of weapon, or rather what kind of rocket was used.”
The government in Baku has so far avoided directly accusing Russia, possibly to avoid antagonising President Vladimir Putin.
However, pro-government MP Rasim Musabekov was clear: “The plane was shot down over Russian territory, in the skies above Grozny. Denying this is impossible.”
He told AFP news agency the plane had been damaged and the pilot had asked to make an emergency landing in Grozny. Instead of being directed to nearby airports, he said it was “sent far away” across the Caspian Sea without GPS.
Flight attendant Zulfuqar Asadov described the moments when the plane was hit by “some kind of external strike” over Chechnya. “The impact of it caused panic inside. We tried to calm them down, to get them seated. At that moment, there was another strike, and my arm was injured.”
Veteran Azerbaijani pilot Tahir Agaguliev told Azerbaijani media that shrapnel had damaged the hydraulics that controlled the plane: “The missile itself did not hit the plane; it was shrapnel from the missile that struck. The missile exploded about 10m (30ft) away, before reaching the plane.”
The pilots of the Embraer 190 plane are credited with saving 29 of those on board by managing to land part of the plane, despite themselves being killed in the crash.
The Kremlin has refused to comment on the increasing number of reports that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane was hit by Russian air defence.
“An investigation into this aviation incident is underway and until the conclusions are made as a result of the investigation, we do not consider ourselves entitled to give any assessments,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Azerbaijan is looking for a Russian apology, or at least an acknowledgement, that the plane was hit by its air defences in Grozny, according to figures close to the government in Baku.
Four years ago, Baku apologised and offered compensation when a Russian air force Mi-24 helicopter was shot down at the end of the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Now the Azerbaijani side is also expecting Russia to take those steps,” said political commentator Farhad Mammadov.
Kazakh authorities have been treating the injured and working closely with Azerbaijan on the investigation.
Officials say the Brazilian plane manufacturer Embraer has sent two specialists to the crash site, 3km (1.9 miles) from Aktau airport in Kazakhstan, and three members of Brazil’s aviation agency will arrive on Saturday.
Reports in Baku suggest both Russia and Kazakhstan have proposed having a committee from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – a regional organisation dominated by Russia – investigate the crash, but Azerbaijan has instead demanded an international inquiry.
Azerbaijan Airlines and several other airlines have suspended flights to some Russian cities in response to the crash.
In a social media post, the airline said this was “for security reasons”. It had already halted flights to Grozny and Makhachkala in neighbouring Dagestan, but has now added the cities of Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara and Mineralnye Vody.
Israel’s flagship airline, El Al, has meanwhile suspended all flights to Moscow, citing developments in Russian airspace, and UAE-based budget carrier Flydubai has halted flights to Sochi and Mineralnye Vody.
[BBC]
Sustained heavy gunfire and loud explosions have been heard in Niger near the international airport outside the capital, Niamey.
Multiple eyewitness accounts and videos showed air defence systems apparently engaging unidentified projectiles in the early hours of Thursday.
The situation later calmed down, reports say, with an official reportedly saying the situation was now under control, without elaborating.
It is not clear what caused the blasts, or if there were any casualties. There has been no official statement from the military government.
The gunfire and blasts began shortly after midnight, according to residents of a neighbourhood near the Diori Hamani International Airport, the AFP news agency reports. They said calm returned after two hours.
The airport houses an air force base and is located about 10km (six miles) from the presidential palace.
Niger is led by Abdourahamane Tiani who seized power in a 2023 coup that ousted the country’s elected civilian president.
Like its neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali, the country has been fighting jihadist groups who have carried out deadly attacks across the region.
It is also a major producer of uranium.
A huge uranium shipment destined for export has been stuck at the airport amid unresolved legal and diplomatic complications with France after the military government nationalised the country’s uranium mines.
“The situation is under control. There is no need to worry,” the Anadolu news agency quoted a Foreign Affairs ministry official as saying, without elaborating.
The official told the agency they were trying to determine whether the gunfire was linked to the uranium shipment.
[BBC]
A South Korean court has sentenced former First Lady Kim Keon Hee to one year and eight months in prison after finding her guilty of accepting bribes from the Unification Church, according to South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency.
The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday cleared Kim, the wife of disgraced ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol, of additional charges of stock price manipulation and violating the political funds act.
Kim was accused of receiving bribes and lavish gifts from businesses and politicians, as well as the Unification Church, totaling at least $200,000.
The prosecution team had also indicted Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja, now on trial, after the religious group was suspected of giving Kim valuables, including two Chanel handbags and a diamond necklace, as part of its efforts to win influence with the president’s wife.
Prosecutors in December said Kim had “stood above the law” and colluded with the religious sect to undermine “the constitutionally mandated separation of religion and state”.
Prosecutor Min Joong-ki also said South Korea’s institutions were “severely undermined by abuses of power” committed by Kim.
The former first lady had denied all the charges, claiming the allegations against her were “deeply unjust” in her final testimony last month.
But she has also apologised for “causing trouble despite being a person of no importance”.
[Aljazeera]
A plane crash has killed the deputy chief minister of India’s Maharashtra state, Ajit Pawar, the country’s aviation regulator has said.
The plane, which took off from the state capital, Mumbai, on Wednesday, crash-landed at the airport in Pawar’s constituency of Baramati, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Two members of the prominent politician’s staff and two crew members were also reported to have been killed.
The cause of the crash has not yet been officially confirmed.
Flightradar24, an online flight tracking service, said the aircraft was attempting a second approach to Baramati airport when it crashed.
The Times of India newspaper quoted DGCA officials as saying the aircraft, a Learjet 45 operated by a company called VSR, crashed at about 8:45am local time (03:15 GMT).
The daily said Pawar, the nephew of veteran politician Sharad Pawar, who founded the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was on his way to attend a public rally for the district council elections.
A witness quoted by the newspaper said the aircraft exploded moments after hitting the ground.
“When we rushed to the spot, the aircraft was on fire. There were four to five more explosions. People tried to pull the passengers out, but the fire was too intense,” said the witness.
Pawar, 66, built his political base through the grassroots cooperative movement. He was a key figure in state politics and served as the second-highest elected official in Maharashtra, as part of the larger federal governing coalition led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He wielded considerable influence in the state’s vibrant sugar belt and was known for his ability to mobilise rural voters.
[Aljazeera]
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