‘I can not execute, management is misplaced!’ Doomed pilot’s final message earlier than Aserbaijan Airlines crash that killed 38 – as proof piles up that Putin ally Kadyrov shot it down

‘I can’t execute, control is lost!’. This is final message of the doomed pilot of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed and killed 38 people.

Passengers made their final video calls to loved ones before the tragic jet crash as evidence is piling up today that Russian air defences hit the Azerbaijan Airlines plane.

The Embraer jet was likely wrongly targeted as a suspected Ukrainian drone by a Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile shot from the Naursky district of Chechnya.

The apparent shrapnel damage to the aircraft – seen on the intact rear section of the doomed aircraft at Aktau in Kazakhstan – is consistent with such a strike.

So are the accounts of surviving passengers who spoke of an explosion outside the plane.

At the time the plane had been seeking to land as scheduled in Grozny in Chechnya, of which it is capital, a Russian region headed by close Vladimir Putin warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, which has been under regular attacks from Ukraine in recent weeks.

It is Kadyrov’s forces who are suspected of firing a Pantsir-S1 at the plane.

A partial text release of the alleged communications between the pilots and air traffic control indicates a catastrophic event which the crew assumed – it now appears wrongly – to be a collision with a flock of birds. 

Struggling to control the plane with 67 people on board, the pilots help going to several different airports in three countries, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

At 8:12, the crew reported ‘both GPS lost’ on the Embraer E190AR, and sought help with ‘vectoring’ to head back to the take-off airport Baku, evidently after the sudden closure of Grozny airport.

At 8:16, one of the pilots said: ‘We have control failure, bird strike in the cockpit. Bird strike in the cockpit (inaudible)…’

Ground control reply: ‘AXY8243 I understand you, what kind of help do you need?’

The captain indicated he was seeking to return to his home airport Baku.

But at 8:17, the pilot announced he was ‘heading to Mineralnye Vody’ – an airport in southern Russia.

Ground control tell him to ‘perform left orbit’ – but the flight deck reply: ‘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.’

Ground control reply: ‘AXY8243 understood you.’

One minute later, at 8:20, the flight’s scheduled arrival time, the pilot says: ‘Left 360, my plane is losing control.’

At 8:21, according to the leaked transcript, the crew decide instead to make for Makhachkala, a Russian airport on the Caspian Sea.

At 8:22, the crew report: ‘Now the hydraulics have failed.’

Two minutes later, the pilot appears to deny he has declared a ‘distress’ on board and tells ground control: ‘The board [plane] is in order.’

But the air traffic controller then cannot properly hear the crew.

‘You are very hard to hear…. tell me your altitude.’

The plane later disappeared from radar for 37 minutes before reappearing as it sought to land in Aktau.

Russian Telegram channel VChK-OGPU – close to the security services – said air defence teams loyal to Chechen leader Kadyrov in naursky district likely attacked the plane. 

‘The pilot mistook the strong blow to the plane for a collision with a flock of birds,’ said the channel.

‘In reality, the damage indicates that, most likely, a missile fired by air defence systems exploded near the plane.’

‘According to the materials we have obtained, that very strike occurred approximately 18 kilometres [11 miles] north, northwest of the airport in Grozny, over the Naursky district at an altitude of 2,400 metres [7,875ft].’

The channel reported: ‘According to information from open sources, several military units are located in this area, including those with air defence systems…..

‘It is known that after the recent [Ukrainian] UAV attacks, several Pantsirs were also deployed in Chechnya.’

It was reported today that Kazakhstan has refused Russia permission to join the investigation examining the crash. Azerbaijan was also refused.

‘This way we will have all the facts, the black box and the evidence,’ said a member of the Kazakhstan investigation commission.

Independent investigative journalists from Volya Telegram channel said the drone left coincided in Grozny with the plane’s expected arrival.

‘The Pantsirs began shooting down everything that was in the air at that moment.

‘Grozny airport was closed for flights. But the passenger plane was already landing, which [air traffic control] prohibited at the last moment.

‘The crew, according to the passengers, made two more attempts to land, after the last of which something exploded near the plane.

‘The damaged Embraer was prohibited from landing in Grozny and tried to reach the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan, but crashed nearby.

‘The crew did everything possible not to crash the plane, but to land it.’

The outlet made clear that ‘traces of shrapnel damage are visible on the fuselage and vertical stabiliser (keel)’ of the jet.

The closure of airports due to drone or missile threats is called a ‘carpet plan’ in Russia.

‘Everyone switched on the mode which can be described as “work according to the instructions”.

‘The instructions don’t say to turn on your brain’.’

The outlet said: ‘Russian propagandists are trying to spread the version that the plane collided with a Ukrainian drone.

‘A collision with an attack UAV would not have left shrapnel holes in a civilian airliner, but would have led to the destruction and fall of the aircraft immediately after the impact.

‘Drones do not explode near the target, they explode upon impact with the target.’

A special aircraft of the Russian Emergencies Ministry has flown nine Russians, including one child, injured in yesterday’s plane crash to Moscow for treatment.

By this morning, Kadyrov had not spoken about the plane crash from which there were 29 survivors.

His nephew Khamzat Kadyrov, secretary of the Chechen Security Council, wrote on his Instagram that ‘everything was shot down’ and published a video in which a drone is seen exploding. 

The terrifying moments before and after the plane ploughed into the ground and erupted into a ball of flames was caught on camera.

The heart-wrenching footage snapped survivors pulling themselves from the mangled wreckage. 

Half of the mangled plane can be seen in the clip, with emergency services and passengers surrounding the aircraft in the hunt to find survivors. 

One person can be seen being dragged to safety, their legs dangling.  

In the background cries and screams can be heard from surrounding people.

One bloodied man can seen limping away from the wreckage. 

Another video shows the moment the plane hits the ground, bursting into flames on impact and sending a huge black smoke cloud into the air. 

Footage of the aircraft has showed suspicious holes in the fuselage, leading to rumours that the aircraft was shot down by Russians.

Aeroplane tracker Flight Radar 24, showed the plane disappear before the crash, suggesting it was exposed to air defense systems in Russia.  

Ahead of the crash, the crew had reported a strong impact on the hull. They assumed the aircraft hit a flock of birds but later it was reported that it was the explosion of an oxygen tank to supply the cockpit in the event of depressurisation.

It is known the Embraer 190, belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines, was attempting to land at Russian airport Grozny, capital of Chechnya region, which at the time was under attack by Ukrainian drones.

The plane was barred from landing – with the official reason given as ‘fog’.

It is known Chechnya and three bordering areas were under attack, and that a shopping mall ignited into an inferno with a drone strike win Vladikavkaz, capital of Russian region North Ossetia.

It is also reported from security officials that Chechen air defences opened fire on drones, striking and exploding at least one.

Footage filmed by a passenger shows terrified people praying and some oxygen masks lowered with damage inside the cabin minutes before the plane crashed and broke apart in Kazakhstan, leaving 38 dead.

Other footage shows mayhem inside the plane after the crash as rescuers went inside the severed rear of the aircraft, where several people can be seen lying on the ground. Astonishingly, some were found still alive.

One trapped woman shouted at rescuers: ‘Help me please!’. A firefighter asked her whether she needed help to get up, and she confirmed that she would need to be lifted out of the debris.

It is understood that the 29 people reported to have survived the crash were found in the rear section of the aircraft, with the front being badly destroyed by fire. 

Latest figures indicate 22 of the 29 survivors are being treated in hospital, seven of whom are in serious condition. At least ten people dying after reportedly being thrown out of the cabin.

One terrifying video shows the moment the plane burst into flames and broke into several parts as it hit the ground, with thick black smoke rising up from the wrecked aircraft after. 

Later bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact. 

Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the Embraer 190 had ‘made an emergency landing’ around three kilometres from Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.

‘A plane doing the Baku-Grozny route crashed near the city of Aktau. It belongs to Azerbaijan Airlines,’ the Kazakh ministry said on Telegram.  

The Embraer E190AR with registration number 4K-AZ65 sent out a distress signal at an altitude of 2,125 feet over the Caspian Sea. 

Dramatic new footage showed the pilot pulling the plane out of a steep fall as he sought to regain control, but the aircraft still suffered a catastrophic crash exploding in fire. The two main sites of the wreck at Aktau airport were hundreds of yards apart. 

Mangled human remains from the horror crash were strewn on rough ground at the airport.

Dazed and bloodied passengers are seen emerging from the severed rear of the plane. Some sat in shock on the ground after escaping from the aircraft. Others managed to walk clear.

Meanwhile, the front of the aircraft – torn asunder by the crash – could be seen ablaze in the distance.

Plane crash survivor Kristina Evstigneeva, 34, a travel agent from Vladivostok, was in a serious condition and had to undergo brain surgery after the plane crash in Kazakhstan.

Another survivor Zaur Mamedov, 36, was returning from his father’s funeral in Baku.

The plane attempted to land at Aktau in western Kazakhstan after being rerouted from Grozny and another Russian city Makhachkala due to fog. 

Two of the 29 survivors are children, believed to be girls aged 11 and 16.

‘They are receiving all the necessary medical care in hospitals in the region,’ said the Ministry of Health. ’23 ambulance teams were mobilised to the scene of the incident.’ 

Unconfirmed reports said that both pilots died in the crash, and from the crew only a female flight attendant survived. 

Tengrinews reported 37 citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 of Russia, six of Kazakhstan and three of Kyrgyzstan were on board the stricken plane. 

Following the crash, Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, was returning home from Russia where he had been due to attend a summit on Wednesday, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement and said those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences to Aliyev over the loss of life, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

‘Unfortunately, Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev was forced to leave St Petersburg (where he had a summit). Putin has already called him and expressed his condolences in connection with the crash of the Azerbaijani plane in Aktau,’ Peskov said.

‘We deeply sympathise with those who lost their relatives and friends in this plane crash and wish a speedy recovery to all those who managed to survive.’

 

Aktau residents have been asked to donate blood for the survivors. 

Authorities in Kazakhstan said a government commission had been set up to investigate what had happened and its members ordered to fly to the site and ensure that the families of the dead and injured were getting the help they needed.

Kazakhstan would cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation, the government said.

Grozny – the destination – is the capital of the Chechnya republic, a Russian region controlled by Vladimir Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov which regularly sends troops to fight in the war against Ukraine.