The airline also announced that the preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of AZAL’s Embraer 190 indicated “physical and technical external interference”.
The decision to suspend flights is related to the preliminary results of the investigation and possible risks to flight safety, the airline said.
“Based on the opinion of experts and the statements of eyewitnesses, it can be concluded that there was external intervention,” Azerbaijan’s Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev told reporters, adding that it remains to be determined what kind of weapon was used.
The minister quoted eyewitnesses as saying that three explosions were heard in the plane while it was over Grozny.
“Azerbaijan Airlines” announced that flights from Baku to Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa, Samara, Grozny and Makhachkala will not take place until the final investigation into the causes of the plane crash is completed.
The airline will continue flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Astrakhan, Kazan and Novosibirsk.
Flights from Baku to Grozny and Makhachkala were suspended already on Wednesday.
It has already been reported that a passenger plane belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 37 of the 68 people on board. The media, citing sources, say that the plane near Grozny may have been hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile. Air defense in the vicinity of Grozny at that time repelled an attack by Ukrainian drones.
Russian airports, including Moscow’s, are regularly shut down by Ukrainian drones.
Source: www.diena.lv
