Azerbaijan Airliner Down near Kazakhstan, 12/25, fatalities

From AP:

RIA Novosti quoted Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, as saying that preliminary information showed that the pilot had chosen to divert to Kazakhstan’s Aktau after a bird strike on the aircraft led to “an emergency situation on board”.​
 
Oof. Unless the birds were operating anti-aircraft equipment, it's hard to see how they could have caused that pattern of damage!
 
As terrible as that sounds, I would far rather find out it was a tragic shoot-down than a potentially-grounding mechanical problem on the Embraer. RIP and prayers for the families of the souls lost and for justice for the perpetrators if that is what happened.
 
From the pilots perspective, he may have thought it was a bird strike. I don't know Russian, or whatever language they were using, but it could have been said something like "My bird got Struck" and was translated to our understanding of a bird strike.
 
I think those “birds” have been eating at a ball bearing factory.

There was video on X (linked in the Reddit link) from onboard showing holes inside before the crash
 
I wish to mention the skills and courage the crew displayed while flying a wounded aircraft and trying to reach an airport. There was massive damage to the horizontal stabilizer and elevators from the missile. They gave it their all, and that resulted in many passengers surviving the crash.

Rest easy, aviators.
 
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It appears the aircraft was in phugoid oscillations as it neared the ground, with throttle applications at the peaks. It also looks like a complete loss of control occurred just before it crashed.

EDIT: After watching the video a few times and thinking about it, I considered the damage had eventuated the loss of all hydraulic systems. If, as it appears, the pilots were using the throttles for directional control, as Al Haynes and Denny Fitch did, perhaps the final loss of control was caused by the turn exceeding the limits of controllability the engines could provide.

Once the plane banked past that point, the right turn could not be negated by application of full thrust on #2, and idle on #1. The pilots still performed heroically, as they were still able to effect a landing that preserved a large part of the aft fuselage and saved the lives of those within.

While fate decrees and we must obey, extraordinary effort to obtain the best possible outcome can alter the toll that the black hooded one demands. The crew performed admirably, and their actions allowed many to escape certain death. For that, they will live on as examples of benevolent sacrifice to the benefit of others, which is the highest honor a flier can obtain.

 
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The latest is that Russia is saying it “might” have been an accidental attack by their Pantsir SAM system. Grozny was apparently attacked by a drone 2 days ago, so it’s easy to understand why they would fire on a civilian airliner. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

That is consistent with the damage I’ve seen of the empennage, injuries to passengers from video inside the plane before the crash, and loss of control.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1871941361844232315
 
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Could a bird strike cause an uncontained engine failure that could have caused the shrapnel? Not sure what part of the plane those pics came from.

News notes that the passengers in the cabin video were calm. Either resigned to some fate or just used to calamity.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Could a bird strike cause an uncontained engine failure that could have caused the shrapnel? Not sure what part of the plane those pics came from.

News notes that the passengers in the cabin video were calm. Either resigned to some fate or just used to calamity.
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The engines on that aircraft are under the wings. The shrapnel damage is to the empennage. There's almost no way the damage to the empennage came from an engine coming apart.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Could a bird strike cause an uncontained engine failure that could have caused the shrapnel? Not sure what part of the plane those pics came from.

News notes that the passengers in the cabin video were calm. Either resigned to some fate or just used to calamity.
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I think at this point it is all but confirmed that Russia shot the darn thing.
 
This Wall Street Journal article claims the crew flew the aircraft for 1:15 between the loss of altitude control and the crash. It also says GPS spoofing was the cause of the change of direction over the Caspian Sea. An attached Flightradar 24 profile shows the extreme altitude excursions, likely after the hydraulic systems failed. It appears depressurization and an emergency descent occurred while still under control.

An accompanying photo shows the shrapnel damage seen on the left side of the vertical stabilizer in previously posted photos completely penetrated the stab and exited the right side, indicating the energy of the shards.

 
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455 Bravo Uniform said:
Could a bird strike cause an uncontained engine failure that could have caused the shrapnel? Not sure what part of the plane those pics came from.

News notes that the passengers in the cabin video were calm. Either resigned to some fate or just used to calamity.
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The empennage, well away from the engines. It wasn’t engine failure it was loss of control because of damage to the rudder and elevators.
 
3393RP said:
This Wall Street Journal article claims the crew flew the aircraft for 1:15 between the loss of altitude control and the crash. It also says GPS spoofing was the cause of the change of direction over the Caspian Sea. An attached Flightradar 24 profile shows the extreme altitude excursions, likely after the hydraulic systems failed. It appears depressurization and an emergency descent occurred while still under control.

An accompanying photo shows the shrapnel damage seen on the left side of the vertical stabilizer in previously posted photos completely penetrated the stab and exited the right side, indicating the energy of the shards.

Click to expand...
Continuing to be able to fly the plane after loss of altitude control reminds me of Alaska 261. That one was pencil whipping maintenance though, not missiles.
 
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I have to admit, when I heard of the plane going down, the first thing I thought was, “Nothing gives me confidence like hearing the words “Azerbaijan Airlines”.”

But the more I hear about how that flight crew was able to fly that shot up aircraft and get it down and save lives, the more respect I have for those two.
 
Hell, Aeroflot was no picnic either. Having been on some of those aircraft, I was really happy we decided to travel through Russia and Ukraine by train.

The quaint bit of newspeak today is that the flight experienced "physical and technical external interference,”
 
flyingron said:
Hell, Aeroflot was no picnic either. Having been on some of those aircraft, I was really happy we decided to travel through Russia and Ukraine by train.
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I recall an old interview in Outside magazine, with a climber (I don't recall who) renowned for making difficult first ascents of some very remote peaks across Eurasia. The question posed was: "What is the greatest danger you face? Avalanche? Icefall? Hypoxia? Frostbite?" The answer the climber gave was "Russian helicopters", as that was their typical method of getting to basecamp.
 
Putin says he's sorry the plane blew up, but won't admit that he did it.
 
flyingron said:
The quaint bit of newspeak today is that the flight experienced "physical and technical external interference,”
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It doesn't take AI to translate into "experienced AA Fire,a SAM, GPS Spoofing and Avionics Jamming"
 
Matthew said:
I have to admit, when I heard of the plane going down, the first thing I thought was, “Nothing gives me confidence like hearing the words “Azerbaijan Airlines”.”

But the more I hear about how that flight crew was able to fly that shot up aircraft and get it down and save lives, the more respect I have for those two.
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Reminds me of when MH17 happened. I walked into the office just as a coworker (also a pilot) said "Oh ****, a 777 crashed."
Me: "What? 777s don't crash."
Coworker: "Oh yeah, never mind, it was shot down."
 
Reopened.

Reminder:
geopolitics.jpg
 
WOOHOO!!! POLITICS POLITICS POLITICS WOOOHOOOOO!!!!
 
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