Putin has since apologised for the incident without admitting fault
The final chilling words of the pilot in charge of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 that crashed and killed 38 people have been released.
The tragic incident happened on Christmas Day (Wednesday 25 December) with the plane flying from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus with 67 people on board.
Following the accident, many raised questions about how the jet found itself crashing in Kazakhstan, on the other side of the Caspian Sea.
Very quickly many pointed the finger towards Russia and potential military involvement which could have seen the plane mistaken for a Ukrainian drone.
Without accepting blame for the accident, Russian President Vladimir Putin, today, apologised to the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev by phone.
The damage to the rear of the plane seen in images and the testimony of surviving passengers are consistent with a suspected surface-to-air-missile strike.
Forces of Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic in Russia, are suspected of bringing the plane down.
A partial text release of the supposed communications between air traffic control and the pilots has been released which showed that at the time, the crew believed the plane had fallen victim of a bird strike, which now appears to be wrong.
Struggling to control the plane at 8:12, the crew reported “both GPS lost” on the aircraft and sought help with “vectoring” to head back to the Baku where the aircraft took off from.
This came after the sudden closure of Grozny airport due to the conflict going on in the region.
Four minutes later, one of the pilots said: “We have control failure, bird strike in the cockpit. Bird strike in the cockpit (inaudible)…”
Ground control replied: “AXY8243 I understand you, what kind of help do you need?”
The captain of the plane initially said he was looking to return to Baku, but at 8:17 announced he was heading to Mineralnye Vody in southern Russia.
At this point the controller told the pilot to “perform left orbit”.
The crew replied to this: “I can’t execute, control is lost.”
At 8:19, one of the pilots states: “I can’t maintain 150, we have high pressure in the cabin.”
Air traffic control replied: “AXY8243 understood you.”
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Just a minute later at 8:20 the pilot responded: “Left 360, my plane is losing control.”
At 8:21 the alleged leaked transcript shows that the pilot once again decided to change destination, opting for Makhachkala on the Russian coast of the Caspian Sea.
At 8:22 the crew report: “Now the hydraulics have failed.”
The pilot then appears to deny to ground control that he has declared a “distress” on board as he announced: “The board [plane] is in order.”
However , to this the controller replies: “You are very hard to hear…. tell me your altitude.”
The plane then disappeared from the radar for 37 minutes before reappearing on the other side of the Caspian Sea near Aktou as it attempted to emergency land in Kazakhstan.
Sadly the aircraft crashed here, killing 38 of the 67 on board, including both pilots.
Today it was reported that Kazakhstan have refused Russia and Azerbaijan permission in joining in with examining the crash.
A member of the Kazakhstan investigation commission said: “This way we will have all the facts, the black box and the evidence.”
