Moscow hasn’t received samples from Russia-bound flight’s crash site – RT source
Moscow has not received any of the alleged “foreign objects” recovered from the wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 that crashed in Kazakhstan late last year, a source within Russia’s civil aviation industry close to the investigation of the incident has told RT.
The Russia-bound flight crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25 after sustaining damage mid-air in the skies above the city of Grozny in the Chechen Republic. On Tuesday, a preliminary report of the incident was released by the Kazakh authorities, who provided new details and shared imagery of the apparent “foreign objects” recovered from the crash site. The investigators abstained from speculating on the nature of the mangled pieces of metal that had been recovered, stating only they had been sent for examination.
The release of the report prompted speculation in some Western media outlets that the alleged “foreign objects” were consistent with shrapnel used in missiles deployed by the Russian-made Pantsir-S anti-aircraft system. Reuters reported that Azerbaijan was in possession of a piece that had supposedly been recovered from the wreck.
“The Azerbaijani side possesses a fragment of a Pantsir-S missile, which was extracted from the aircraft and identified through international expertise,” a senior Azerbaijani government official told the agency.
Such allegations do require “additional research and examination,” the source close to the investigation told RT. Moscow still has not received any of the “foreign objects” recovered from the plane, the source said, stating that it was still too early to speculate on their nature.
“The report of the Kazakh government commission does not identify [the objects], but states the need for additional study of their origin,” the source added.
Flight 8243 ended up crashing in Aktau, Kazakhstan after attempting an emergency landing. The plane’s crew assumed the aircraft had either collided with a flock of birds or suffered an on-board explosion, the transcript of the plane’s communications suggest.
The crash has prompted intense speculation about its causes, with theories including a strike of a Ukrainian drone and an accidental hit by Russian anti-aircraft defenses. While Moscow has offered an apology to Baku because the incident occurred in its airspace, it has neither admitted nor denied the potential involvement of its military and has urged awaiting the conclusion of the probe.
