Azerbaijan Airlines crash: was this another military shoot-down of a civil aircraft?
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Key questions and answers about the first fatal crash anywhere in the world involving a passenger jet in 2024. The first fatal accident anywhere in the world involving a passenger jet in 2024 happened on Christmas Day. Thirty-eight passengers and crew died when Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 from the airline’s hub at Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia‘s Chechnya, crashed short of Aktau airport in Kazakhstan; 29 survived.
“We will never forget the beloved people we lost in the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft,” said Azerbaijan Airlines in a statement posted online on Boxing Day. The pro-government AnewZ news station cited Azerbaijan officials as saying shrapnel from a Russian missile was responsible.
They allege the stricken aircraft was then denied permission to land at nearby airports in Russia and urged to head across the Caspian Sea to Aktau. The news service said: “Presumably, this recommendation was given for one purpose: for the plane to fall into the Caspian Sea, all witnesses would be killed and the plane would sink.”.
If Russian air defence action is found to have caused the crash, shoot-downs will be an ever-more common cause of fatalities in aviation accidents. At a time when air safety is improving globally, military action against civil aircraft is an increasing concern.
These are the key questions and answers. Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243, operated with an Embraer 190 passenger jet, took off from Baku airport at 7.55am local time on 25 December 2024. On board: 62 passengers, three cabin crew and two pilots. Their nationalities:.
