Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, which was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines.

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243

4K-AZ65, the aircraft involved in the accident
Accident
Date	25 December 2024
Summary	Crashed on approach during emergency landing, under investigation
Site	Near Aqtau International Airport, Aktau, Kazakhstan 43°53′0.741″N 51°0′21.843″E
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Embraer E190AR
Aircraft name	Gusar
Operator	Azerbaijan Airlines
IATA flight No.	J28243
ICAO flight No.	AHY8243
Call sign	AZAL 8243
Registration	4K-AZ65
Flight origin	Heydar Aliyev International Airport, Baku, Azerbaijan
Destination	Kadyrov Grozny International Airport, Chechnya, Russia
Occupants	67
Passengers	62
Crew	5
Fatalities	38
Injuries	29
Survivors	29

On 25 December 2024, the aircraft operating the route crashed near Aqtau International Airport, Kazakhstan, with 62 passengers and 5 crew on board, according to local sources. Russian news agencies said that the plane had been flying from Baku to Grozny in the Russian republic of Chechnya, but had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny. The plane operated was an Embraer E190, and reportedly squawked 7700 on its transponder which signalled an emergency had occurred on board, while flying over the Caspian Sea, with Russia's aviation watchdog suggesting issues regarding a bird strike. In total, 38 people were killed in the accident, including both pilots; 29 people survived.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft involved, which was manufactured in 2013, was an Embraer E190AR registered as 4K-AZ65 with serial number 19000630. It last underwent technical controls on 18 October 2024. It was powered by two General Electric CF34-10E6 engines, and was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, the flag carrier of Azerbaijan.

Passengers

The aircraft was carrying 67 people on board, 62 were passengers from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the remaining were 5 crew members all being Azerbaijanis. There were two passengers of unknown citizenship. Four minors were also on board. It has been confirmed that 29 people survived, and a total of 38 died. Three of the five crew members survived, while both pilots were killed in the accident. The 29 survivors, including two children, were hospitalised following the accident. Eleven of them were described as in a critical condition. Among the survivors are four children, 11 to 19 years of age. In command was Captain Igor Kshnyakin and the co-pilot was First Officer Alexander Kalyaninov.

Nationalities

Country	Passengers	Crew	Total	Survived	Reference
Azerbaijan	32	5	37	14
Germany	1	—	1	1
Kazakhstan	7	—	7	—
Kyrgyzstan	3	—	3	3
Russia	15	—	15	9
Unknown	4	—	4	2
Total	62	5	67	29

Accident

The aircraft took off from Baku International Airport at 07:55 Azerbaijan Time (UTC+04:00) on a flight to Grozny Airport. According to flight tracking service Flightradar24, for unknown reasons the aircraft was "exposed to strong GPS jamming and spoofing" while flying near Grozny. The aircraft was diverted to Makhachkala's Uytash Airport in Dagestan, Russia due to fog in Grozny, and had been cruising at about 30,000 feet (9,144 m) when it disappeared from radar coverage at 08:40 local time (04:40 UTC) before reappearing off the coast of Kazakhstan at around 10:07 local time (06:07 UTC).

The crew gave a distress signal by squawking 7700 on its transponder, at 09:35 local time (UTC+05:00) and reported a failure of the control system. Then at 09:49, the pilots requested an emergency landing in Aqtau International Airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan and tried to make it in direct mode. The plane then reappeared on radar at 10:07, flying over the Caspian Sea toward Aktau, significantly off its usual flight path. At 10:28, the airplane impacted the ground. The accident was captured on video, which showed that the landing gear was deployed when the plane impacted the ground. The plane crashed into the ground, with its right wing hitting the ground first. It then tumbled, exploded, and broke into two major pieces. The explosion combined with the fire that broke out after the plane crashed destroyed the front section of the plane. The tail section of the plane came to rest upside down away from the main wreckage, and remained largely intact.

Preliminary information from a Russian aviation authority suggested that the request for emergency landing was due to colliding with a flock of birds. Images from the scene showed significant perforating holes on the tail surfaces. The crew had reported a strong impact on the fuselage from what was initially assumed to have been birds. Later Kazakhstan's emergency services reported that an oxygen cylinder on board might have exploded. Meduza described evidence suggesting that the jet was hit by Russian air defence.

Aftermath

Following the accident, a state of emergency was declared in Tupkaragan District, where the aircraft crashed. A total of 482 emergency response personnel, 97 pieces of special equipment, 10 canine brigades, and two aircraft were deployed to the accident site. Additional doctors were flown in from Astana to treat the injured. The Blood Center of the Mangystau Region reached out to the public, asking that healthy individuals donate blood. Soon after, residents of Aktau arrived at the center to donate their blood. with around 300 participating. Residents of Astana have also lined up at the city's blood center to donate blood. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations flew equipment and medical workers to Kazakhstan to help with the response to the accident. The ministry later said that it would airlift Russian nationals injured in the incident to Moscow. A crisis centre was established at the Russian consulate in Oral, while diplomatic staff were also sent to the accident site. Representatives from the Azerbaijani consulate in Aktau were also deployed to the accident site. A special medical team and related equipment were also dispatched from Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan Airlines suspended its Baku-Grozny-Baku and Baku-Makhachkala-Baku flights for the duration of the investigation. It also opened a hotline for relatives of those on board and changed its social media profiles to black as a sign of mourning.

Reactions

Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the American, British, French, Lithuanian and Israeli embassies, and the Georgian, Romanian and Turkish foreign ministries expressed their condolences to Azerbaijan over the plane crash. Flowers were also laid at the Azerbaijani embassy in Astana in mourning for the victims.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was on an aircraft heading to the Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia when news of the accident broke out, leading him to return to Baku, where he held an emergency meeting on the accident shortly after landing at Baku airport. He declared a day of national mourning for 26 December. First lady and vice president Mehriban Aliyeva also expressed condolences.

Investigation

Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan opened commissions to investigate the disaster. The Kazakh commission was headed by deputy prime minister Kanat Bozumbayev, while Kazakh emergencies minister Chingis Arinov also visited Aktau. The Azerbaijani commission was headed by Prime Minister Ali Asadov. Azerbaijan sent a delegation consisting of its emergency situations minister, deputy general prosecutor, and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines to Aktau to conduct an on-site investigation. Sources close to the investigation claimed that while nearing Grozny, surviving passengers stated that they had heard an explosion followed by what was described as shrapnel hitting and penetrating the aircraft.

Theories

On the morning of 25 December, at around 07:25 local time (04:25 UTC), ongoing UAV attacks were reported in Grozny allegedly by Ukrainian forces. Shortly afterward, at 09:35 local time (06:35 UTC), the crew of a passenger plane issued a distress signal by squawking 7700 on its transponder. According to Flightradar24, the aircraft encountered GPS jamming, with invalid ADS-B position data starting at 04:25 UTC due to significant interference.

Damage to the plane included shrapnel marks on the vertical stabilizer and wings, suggesting an explosion nearby. Witness accounts reported injuries, with one woman wounded in the leg and another witness's life jacket pierced by shrapnel. It is hypothesized that Russian anti-aircraft systems, possibly the Pantsir-S1, mistook the plane for a UAV due to a failure in the "friend-or-foe" identification system. According to aviation experts talking to Türkiye Today, the shrapnel damage pattern across the aircraft’s fuselage and tail section is inconsistent with damage resulting from bird strikes, instead resembling those of anti-aircraft ammunition impacts. Türkiye Today also noted that "The concentration of puncture holes in the tail section suggests a possible loss of hydraulic systems, similar to the United Airlines Flight 232 incident." Militarnyi also noted similarities between this flight and an Ilyushin Il-22PP damaged by an anti-aircraft missile, stating that "one can see the similarity of damage and the number of holes in the hull, which probably indicates damage by a high-explosive fragment."

External links

• Full list of passengers