Embraer 190 flight attendant survivor: There were two external impacts

Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) announced preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft (Flight J2-8243 Baku-Grozny).

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Embraer 190 plane crash

According to preliminary results of the investigation, the airplane crashed due to "physical and technical" external interference.

Azerbaijan Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev confirmed the company's report. According to him, the wreckage of the plane and witnesses' testimony give reason to say that the aircraft crashed due to external influence.

AZAL also announced its decision to suspend flights from the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, to ten cities in Russia, including Grozny (Chechnya) and Makhachkala (Dagestan). The decision was made "for security purposes, taking into account potential risks." The suspension will be in effect until the investigation is complete.

Sources at emergency services said immediately after the disaster that the Embraer 190 aircraft crashed in Kazakhstan due to a technical failure. The crew allegedly reported the failure of one of the systems, sent a distress signal, and the plane disappeared from radar screens.

Kazakhstan Transport Minister Marat Karabayev, citing the dispatcher, said that an oxygen tank exploded on board the plane during the flight before it crashed.

"At 10:53, the Rostov flight director reported additional information to the Aktau flight director that an oxygen tank exploded on the aircraft (…), passengers were losing consciousness, and requested resuscitation upon arrival," he said.

Russian Aviation Agency Rosaviatsia said that AZAL aircraft struck a flock of birds and then went to an alternate airfield in Aktau for landing.

Rosaviatsia's chief Dmitry Yadrov later said that as the AZAL aircraft was landing in Grozny, the city was under a drone attack.

Flight attendant: There were two external impacts on the aircraft

Zulfugar Asadov, a flight attendant on the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, who survived the crash (quotes from Media. Az):

• The plane made three unsuccessful attempts to land in Grozny due to fog. The pilot eventually decided to head to the nearest airport, "but at that moment a strange sound was heard from outside the plane";
• The crew tried to calm the passengers, but then there was an impact from the outside of the plane;
• The plane continued its flight. The captain decided to change the landing site from the water surface to land. "He was forced to make an emergency landing, since the plane's engine was out of order, and a hard landing on water is fraught with tragedy”;
• Information about a cylinder exploding during the flight is "not true”, "if something had happened to the oxygen cylinder, the plane would have fallen apart in the air”;

"Reports about a gas cylinder on board is not true either. All passengers were inspected upon boarding, it is impossible to bring anything. This tragic situation occurred as a result of an external impact on the plane";

According to the flight attendant, the front landing gear of the plane touched the ground first.

"If the plane had touched the runway with both the front and rear landing gear at the same time, no one would have survived. When the front landing gear touched the ground, the plane fell ito two, the front section of the aircraft came off".

Flight attendant Aydan Rahimli (quotes as per Oxu.Az):

• Oxygen masks fell out after the first impact. When the crew tried to address the passengers, a second impact occurred;
• Shrapnel fragments found themselves inside of the plane. Reports about the explosion of the oxygen cylinder is not true. If the cylinder had exploded, we would not have survived."