Survivor of Azerbaijani Airlines plane crash claims there was explosion when plane tried to land in Chechnya

MOSCOW

A survivor of Wednesday’s Azerbaijan Airlines crash said the plane’s pilots tried to land in Grozny, Chechnya three times, followed by an explosion outside the plane, according to an audio recording shared by Russian TV channel RT.

Subkhankul Rahimov said that something exploded on the third landing attempt and that when he reached for his life jacket, he found a hole in it caused by shrapnel.

He also said that he was hit by shrapnel after the explosion.

He recounted the multiple attempts to land, saying: "The plane … was on its way to land, and then, abruptly, started to gain altitude. At this moment I woke up and realized that the plane was unable to land on its first attempt. Then it got above the clouds. Below there was fog, heavy fog, you could feel strong fog. The plane turned around and tried to land a second time.”

He added: "According to my count, there were two attempts. The third time, something exploded. There was an explosion.”

Asked if the blast took place inside the plane, Rahimov said it was outside, and tore away a piece of the aircraft covering.

"Experts, specialists will give their assessments, but there was an explosion. There was an explosion for sure. Everyone heard the explosion. I reached for my life jacket, thought – you never know where we're going to land, I'd better put on my life jacket. Took it, see – a hole in the jacket, caused by shrapnel," he said.

He said that after the explosion, shrapnel flew by his legs and went through the life jacket, and that he even took a photo of this.

"Specialists have to sort it out, make conclusions, decide what happened," he said.

The girlfriend of Zaur Mammadov, a survivor, also shared text messages from the time of the crash with Russian outlet Readovka.

In the texts he said that the plane was going down, and after it happened, that he had survived.

Zaur was taken to the hospital with injuries of unknown severity. His transportation to Russia is currently being resolved.

"Zaur is covered in bruises, but conscious," his girlfriend said.

Speaking to RT, Mammadov said "the passengers were expecting their deaths," and then the plane started to fall, and “that's it, half of the plane was torn apart,” in line with footage of the crash site.

On Wednesday an Azerbaijan Airlines flight with 67 people on board traveling from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny crashed near the Kazakh Caspian city of Aktau.

In the crash, 38 people lost their lives and 29 survived, said Kazakh authorities.

After the crash, Thursday was declared a day of national mourning in Azerbaijan.