Russia Attempted to Cover up Azeri Airlines Crash with “Absurd Theories”: President Ilham Aliyev

Russia tried to cover up the December 26 Azeri Airlines Embraer plane crash that killed 28 passengers and crew with “absurd theories” that included the plane crashing into a flock of birds and an explosion on board caused by a gas cylinder.

In an interview with AzTV aired yesterday, President Aliyev said that the facts indicate that the Azerbaijani civilian plane was damaged from the outside over Russian territory, near the city of Grozny, and almost lost control. We also know that electronic warfare put our plane out of control. This was the first impact on the plane. At the same time, as a result of fire from the ground, the tail of the plane was also severely damaged.

“The fact that the fuselage is riddled with holes indicates that the theory of the plane hitting a flock of birds, which was brought up by someone, is completely removed from the agenda.”

Another regrettable moment for us was that official Russian agencies put forward theories about the explosion of a gas cylinder on board the plane. In other words, this clearly showed that the Russian side wanted to cover up the issue, which, of course, is unbecoming of anyone.

Plane hit by accident

Azerbaijan has demand an apology for the accidental downing of the aircraft, compensation to the victims and criminal action against those responsible for targeting of the aircraft. Russian President Putin apologized to President Aliyev during the course of phone call on December 27 fulfilling the first condition.

Azerbaijan rejects Russian composition of accident investigation committee

The Azeri president said that the Russian side officially suggested to us that the Interstate Aviation Committee that consists mainly of Russian experts investigate this matter, but Azerbaijan categorically refused. Instead, Azerbaijan suggested- and Russia agreed- to a working group consisting of international experts that included representatives of the aircraft manufacturer, Embraer, those of relevant Brazilian agencies, representatives of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

Had the plane had crashed into the sea, disproving the absurd Russian theories would have been difficult.

Many questions remain to be answered. For example, why couldn’t the plane land in Grozny? To what extent did the radio-electronic warfare affect the plane’s controls? What was the extent of consequences of the strike and the explosion in the vicinity of the plane? “Because I must also state that attempts to deny obvious facts and pull the wool over people’s eyes here are both nonsensical and absurd.”

Some believe that the plane was deliberately sent off course in Grozny because the plane was already out of control, and there was a high probability it would fall into the sea. If this had been the case, the cover-up attempts would have been successful, and the so-called bird theory would have been presented as the most likely version, the President added.