By Kontur and AFP | 2024-12-30

As the International Air Transport Association (IATA) awaits an interim report on last week's fatal Azerbaijan Airlines (AHY) plane crash, Azerbaijani authorities have called on Russia to take responsibility.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on December 29 demanded that Russia admit it fired at the plane before it crashed, accusing Moscow of initially trying to cover up the cause of the fatal disaster.

AHY 8243 crashed on December 25, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

Azerbaijani officials and international observers say the aircraft was hit by a Russian air-defense system as it tried to land in Grozny, Chechen Republic, Russia.

Survivors have described hearing explosions outside the plane, which then diverted more than 400km across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau, Kazakhstan, where it crash-landed.

'Absurd theories'

Aliyev's unusually forthright accusation of his country's traditional ally came a day after he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone.

"The facts are that the Azerbaijani civilian plane was damaged from the outside over Russian territory, near the city of Grozny, and almost lost control," Aliyev told state television at Baku airport.

"We also know that electronic warfare systems put our plane out of control... At the same time, as a result of fire from the ground, the tail of the plane was also severely damaged," he said.

Aliyev said it was "regrettable and surprising" that Moscow "put forward theories" that, he said, "clearly showed the Russian side wanted to cover up the issue."

"For the first three days, we heard nothing from Russia except some absurd theories," he said, adding that these included the plane hitting a flock of birds.

He called the theory "completely removed" from reality, pointing out that the plane's "fuselage is riddled with holes."

Putin told Aliyev that the systems were active at the time and that he was sorry the incident took place in Russian airspace.

'Victim of military operations'

The Geneva-based IATA, which represents 340 airlines comprising over 80% of global air traffic, called for a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation.

"Out of respect for the 38 people who lost their lives and to those who survived, we must find out why this catastrophe happened and take action to ensure there is never a repeat," IATA director general Willie Walsh said Sunday.

"Civil aircraft must never be the intended or accidental target of military operations," he said.

Walsh said an interim report should be published within 30 days.

"Should the conclusion be that this tragedy was the responsibility of combatants, the perpetrators must be held accountable and brought to justice," he added.

The European Union on Saturday called for a "swift" and "independent" probe into the crash.

The United States on Friday said it had "early indications" that Russia was responsible for the crash but did not provide details.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for "a thorough investigation to establish the truth."

"We can see how the clear visual evidence at the crash site points to Russia's responsibility for the tragedy," he said in a social media post Friday.

History repeating itself

If the accusations prove to be true, the December 25 tragedy would be the third time in history that Russian or Russian-backed forces have shot down a civilian airliner.

On July 17, 2014, Russian-backed separatist forces using a Buk surface-to-air missile destroyed Malaysia Airlines (MH) Flight 17 as it was flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.

On September 1, 1983, a Soviet air force fighter shot down Korean Airlines (KAL) Flight 007 in the Sea of Japan, killing all 246 passengers and 23 crew.

In both prior incidents, Moscow resorted first to denial, deception and disinformation.

"The Kremlin denied responsibility and spun out various conspiracy theories, blaming the crash on either a Ukrainian fighter jet or some kind of elaborate CIA plot," Washington Post columnist Max Boot wrote December 27 regarding the MH 17 crash.

"History appeared to repeat itself this week," Boot wrote.

Independent investigations proved the fault of Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

On the 10th anniversary of the MH 17 crash, the European Union's EUvsDiSiNFO website in July listed the stages of Russian denial of guilt in murdering the MH 17 passengers and crew: "we never said we did it," "it was staged," "they did it themselves" and "blaming Ukraine and the West."

In 1983, the Kremlin initially denied shooting down KAL 007 and later groundlessly accused the dead crew of spying on Soviet defenses for the United States.

Washington made the Kremlin's continued denials of destroying KAL 007 untenable when it played intercepted audio of the fighter pilot and his combat controller's radio transmissions to a session of the United Nations Security Council.

Only in 1992, after the fall of the USSR, did the nascent Russian government release the black boxes of KAL 007, which Moscow had been hiding for nine years.