Russian air defenses may have downed Azerbaijani plane: U.S. official

Russian air defense systems may have brought down an Azerbaijani airliner this week , a U.S. official said Friday after an Azerbaijani minister also suggested the plane was hit by a weapon, citing expert analysis and survivor accounts.

Friday’s assessments by Rashad Nabiyev and White House national security spokesman John Kirby echoed those made by outside aviation experts who blamed the crash on Russian air defense systems responding to a Ukrainian attack. These statements raised pressure on Russia, where officials said a drone attack was underway in the region where the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was heading for a landing. They did not address statements blaming air defenses.

Kirby told reporters on Friday that the U.S. “[has] seen some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems,” but refused to elaborate, citing an ongoing investigation.

Pressed on whether the U.S. has intelligence that helped lead to that conclusion, or was simply relying on informed speculation from experts based on visual assessments of the crash, Kirby characterized the short answer as “yes” but said he’d “leave it at that,” without providing further details.

The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, on Wednesday when it turned toward Kazakhstan and crashed while making an attempt to land . The crash killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured.

Nabiyev, Azerbaijan’s minister of digital development and transportation, told Azerbaijani media that “preliminary conclusions by experts point at external impact,” as does witness testimony.

“The type of weapon used in the impact will be determined during the probe,” Nabiyev said.

Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises on the aircraft as it was circling over Grozny.

Flight attendant Aydan Rahimli said that after one noise, the oxygen masks automatically released. She said that she went to perform first aid on a colleague, Zulfugar Asadov, and then they heard another bang.

Asadov said that the noises sounded like something hitting the plane from outside. Shortly afterward, he sustained a sudden injury like a “deep wound, the arm was lacerated as if someone hit me in the arm with an ax,” he added. He denied a claim from Kazakh officials that an oxygen canister exploded inside the plane.

Two other survivors recounted hearing explosions before the plane went down. Jerova Salihat told Azerbaijani television in an interview in the hospital that “something exploded” near her leg, and Vafa Shabanova said that “there were two explosions in the sky, and an hour and a half later the plane crashed to the ground.”

Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, said Friday that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic.

Yadrov said that after the captain made two unsuccessful attempts to land, he was offered other airports but decided to fly to Aktau in Kazakhstan, across the Caspian Sea.

He didn’t comment on statements from some aviation experts, who pointed out that holes seen in the plane’s tail section suggested that it could have come under fire from Russian air defense systems.

Ukrainian drones have previously attacked Grozny and other areas in the Russian North Caucasus.

Azerbaijan Airlines blamed the crash on unspecified “physical and technical interference” and announced the suspension of flights to several Russian airports. It didn’t say where the interference came from or provide any further details.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the claims that the plane was hit by Russian air defenses, saying that it will be up to investigators to determine the cause of the crash.

“The air incident is being investigated, and we don’t believe we have the right to make any assessments until the conclusions are made as a result of the investigation,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

If it’s proven that the plane crashed after being hit by Russian air defenses, it would be the second deadly civil aviation accident linked to fighting in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard, as it flew over the area in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014.

Russia has denied responsibility, but a Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians and a pro-Russia Ukrainian man for their role in downing the plane with an air defense system brought into Ukraine from a Russian military base.

Investigators from Azerbaijan are working in Grozny as part of the probe of Wednesday’s crash, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement.

Following Wednesday’s suspension of flights from Baku to Grozy and Makhachkala, Azerbaijan Airlines announced Friday that it would also halt service to eight more Russian cities.

The company will continue to operate flights to six Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. Those cities also have been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes in the past.

Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air also announced Friday that it was suspending flights from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains for a month.

FlyDubai also halted flights to Sochi and Mineralnye Vody in southern Russia for the next few days.

The day before, Israel’s El Al carrier suspended flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow citing “developments in Russia’s airspace.” The airline said it would reassess the situation next week.

Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.

一位美国官员周五表示，俄罗斯防空系统可能在本周击落了一架阿塞拜疆客机。此前，一位阿塞拜疆部长也援引专家分析和幸存者证词暗示，这架飞机是被武器击中的。

周五，拉沙德·纳比耶夫和白宫国家安全发言人约翰·柯比的评估与外部航空专家的观点相呼应，后者将坠机事件归咎于俄罗斯防空系统对乌克兰袭击的回应。这些声明加大了对俄罗斯的压力，俄罗斯官员称，在阿塞拜疆航空公司航班降落的地区，无人机袭击正在进行。他们没有回应指责防空系统的说法。

柯比周五告诉记者，美国“已经看到一些初步迹象，这些迹象肯定表明这架战机可能是被俄罗斯防空系统击落的”，但他以调查仍在进行为由，拒绝详细说明。

当被追问美国是否有情报促成这一结论，还是仅仅依靠专家根据对坠机现场的目视评估做出的有根据的推测时，柯比简短地回答是“是的”，但他表示“就此打住”，没有提供更多细节。

这架飞机周三从阿塞拜疆首都巴库飞往俄罗斯车臣共和国首府格罗兹尼，途中转向哈萨克斯坦方向，在试图降落时坠毁。事故造成38人死亡，29名幸存者全部受伤。

阿塞拜疆数字发展和交通部长纳比耶夫告诉阿塞拜疆媒体，“专家的初步结论表明存在外部影响”，证人证词也支持这一观点。

纳比耶夫说：“袭击中使用的武器类型将在调查过程中确定。”

幸存的乘客和机组人员告诉阿塞拜疆媒体，飞机在格罗兹尼上空盘旋时，他们听到飞机发出巨大的噪音。

乘务员艾丹·拉希姆利说，听到一声巨响后，氧气面罩自动打开了。她说，她立即上前对同事祖尔富加尔·阿萨多夫进行急救，随后他们又听到一声巨响。

阿萨多夫说，他听到的声音像是飞机外部有什么东西在撞击机身。不久之后，他突然受伤，手臂被划开一道很深的口子，就像被人用斧头砍了一下一样。他否认了哈萨克斯坦官员关于飞机内部氧气罐爆炸的说法。

另两名幸存者回忆说，飞机坠毁前她们听到了爆炸声。杰罗娃·萨利哈特在医院接受阿塞拜疆电视台采访时说，她腿附近“有什么东西爆炸了”。瓦法·沙巴诺娃则说，“空中发生了两次爆炸，一个半小时后，飞机坠毁了。”

俄罗斯民航局局长德米特里·亚德罗夫周五表示，当这架飞机准备在大雾中降落在格罗兹尼时，乌克兰无人机正在瞄准该市，促使当局关闭了该地区的空中交通。

亚德罗夫说，机长两次尝试降落失败后，有人向他提供了其他机场，但他决定飞往里海对岸的哈萨克斯坦阿克套。

他没有对一些航空专家的说法发表评论，这些专家指出，飞机尾部出现的孔洞表明，该飞机可能遭到了俄罗斯防空系统的攻击。

乌克兰无人机此前曾袭击过格罗兹尼和俄罗斯北高加索地区的其他地区。

阿塞拜疆航空公司将此次坠机事件归咎于未指明的“物理和技术干扰”，并宣布暂停飞往多个俄罗斯机场的航班。该公司没有说明干扰来自何处，也没有提供任何其他细节。

克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫拒绝就飞机被俄罗斯防空系统击中的说法发表评论，称坠机原因将由调查人员确定。

佩斯科夫在与记者的电话会议上说：“这起空难事件正在调查中，我们认为在调查得出结论之前，我们无权做出任何评估。”

如果证实飞机坠毁是被俄罗斯防空系统击中，这将是第二起与乌克兰冲突相关的致命民航事故。2014年，马来西亚航空17号航班在飞越乌克兰东部由莫斯科支持的分裂分子控制的地区时，被俄罗斯地对空导弹击落，机上298人全部遇难。

俄罗斯否认对此负有责任，但荷兰一家法院在 2022 年判处两名俄罗斯人和一名亲俄乌克兰男子有罪，罪名是他们使用从俄罗斯军事基地运入乌克兰的防空系统击落了这架飞机。

阿塞拜疆总检察长办公室在一份声明中表示，作为对周三坠机事件调查的一部分，阿塞拜疆调查人员正在格罗兹尼开展工作。

继周三暂停巴库飞往格罗济和马哈奇卡拉的航班后，阿塞拜疆航空公司周五宣布，还将暂停飞往另外八个俄罗斯城市的航班。

该公司将继续运营飞往包括莫斯科和圣彼得堡在内的六个俄罗斯城市的航班。这些城市过去也曾多次遭到乌克兰无人机袭击。

哈萨克斯坦航空公司（Qazaq Air）周五也宣布，将暂停从阿斯塔纳飞往俄罗斯乌拉尔山脉城市叶卡捷琳堡的航班，为期一个月。

迪拜航空也暂停了未来几天飞往索契和俄罗斯南部矿水城的航班。

前一天，以色列航空公司以“俄罗斯空域局势发展”为由，暂停了特拉维夫至莫斯科的航班。该航空公司表示，将于下周重新评估情况。

美联社驻华盛顿记者威尔·韦瑟特和驻伦敦记者艾达·苏丹诺娃对本报道亦有贡献。