An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E190 has crashed just before landing after attempting to divert to Aktau, Kazakhstan. Investigations are ongoing.
Written By: Gareth
Edited By: Yu Le
Published: 26 December 2024, 12.59am (GMT +8)
An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E190 crashed early on the morning of Christmas en route from its home base in Baku to Grozny in Russia. Flight J2-8243 was carrying 62 passengers and 5 crew members on Christmas morning, 37 of which were Azerbaijani citizens.
Data from Flightradar24 shows that the E190 left Baku at 3.49 a.m. UTC en route to Grozny. At about 4.25 a.m. UTC (8.25 a.m. local time), the aircraft disappeared off FlightRadar24 just off the coast of Makhachkala in Russia due to GPS jamming.
It is important to note as well that, due to active GPS spoofing and jamming in the area, FlightRadar24 data might not indicate the true path of the aircraft.
Sources indicate that the aircraft diverted due to fog at Grozny which made the approach and landing unsafe. At 4.35 a.m. UTC (8.35 a.m. local time), the aircraft squawked 7700, which is the emergency squawk code and trying to make it to Aktau in Kazakhstan. The aircraft reappeared on radar at 6.07 a.m. UTC (10.07 a.m. local time), and attempted an approach into Runway 11 in Aktau, circling twice before impacting the beach just west of the airport, according to FlightRadar24.
Preliminary reports indicate that a bird strike was one of the possible reasons for the declared emergency, although it is not clear why the aircraft diverted so far from its original destination. Investigations are continuing.
The erratic nature of the flight path across the Caspian Sea is noteworthy, which could be a possible indication that the pilots were battling with bad weather or some other difficulties on approach. Once again, before investigations are concluded, it is difficult to determine the reason for the erratic flight path as depicted in FlightRadar24.
The aircraft, 4K-AZ65, was 11.6 years old at the time of the incident and had not accumulated any prior incidents. The airframe has been written off according to planespotters.net.
Investigations are currently underway. Project AeroFlight sends our sincere condolences to the families of the victims.
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