Services to Russia have been suspended following Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243’s crash near Aktau International Airport, Kazakhstan, on Christmas Day. The incident left only 29 surviving persons out of the 67 on board. The plane was travelling to Grozny International Airport, Russia, before reportedly suffering “external damage”, says President Iham Aliyev.
The State Civil Aviation Authority ordered the suspension of routes after the attack was suspected to caused by an anti-aircraft missile.
Azerbaijan Reaction
Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) has suspended its Baku-Grozny service after their E190 crashed while attempting an emergency stop near Aktau. The airline announced it will halt the service until investigations are concluded, previously operating this route twice a week with E190s.
AZAL has banned flights to nine other Russian airports due to the suspected anti-aircraft missile attack. These include Makhachkala, Volgograd, and Vladikavkaz. However, flights will continue to St. Petersburg, Moscow Domodedovo, and Moscow Vnukovo.
The suspension has also affected a number of Russian airlines which had scheduled flights from the now-banned airports to Baku.
Other international airlines have also limited Russian routes.
Global Reaction
A surging number of international airlines have suspended Russian service routes following the investigation into the incident:
El Al Israel Airlines suspended its service from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion to Domodedovo for a week, although no reinstalment date is confirmed. They said the change was due to “developments in Russian airspace”.
Turkmenistan Airlines announced that the Ashgabat-Moscow Domodedovo route will not be available between December 30th and January 31st. Reasons remain unprovided.
Qazaq Air stopped its service from from Astana Nursultan Nazarbayev to Yekaterinburg on December 28th, restarting on January 27th. They commented this was based on a “risk assessment of flights to Russia”. Qazaq Air will continue flights to Omsk and Novosibirsk.
Finally, flydubai suspended its flights from Dubai International Airport to Sochi and Mineralye Vody for “technical reasons” until early January. They will continue flights to nine other Russian cities.
What’s next?
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his apologies to President Aliyev, but did not address the causes of the issue.
This crash is one of four that have occurred this week, although one of the more serious ones.
We recently saw a fatal crash in South Korea, with Jeju Air Flight 2216. A Boeing 737 failed to deploy its landing gear, leading to an explosion which took the lives of 179 passengers.
Other incidents include KLM Flight 1204 in Oslo, where a Boeing 737 veered off the runway onto the grass. No fatalities or injuries were recorded.
Air Canada Flight 2259 skidded off its runway at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. Its wings reportedly “burst into flames”, but no fatalities or injuries were recorded.
Questions are being asked on aircraft safety, with an extreme number of malfunctions and crashes in the last week of 2024.
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