Astana said that published conversations of AZAL flight differ from original ones

Earlier published on the Internet transcripts of the pilots' conversations differ from the materials of the “black boxes” of the AZAL plane that crashed in Aktau on 25 December. This was stated by Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev on 24 January.

‘There is a big difference from the contents of the black boxes. Wait for official sources,’ he said at a press conference. Exactly what those differences are, he did not explain.

No data was lost, he said, and their copies were given to Russia and Azerbaijan. Preliminary results of the investigation will be made public next week.

Recall that on 15 January, the transcript of conversations between the AZAL crew and dispatchers was published by the Baza telegram channel. The transcript showed that the crew tried several times to land in Grozny, then informed the local dispatchers that a bird had hit the aircraft and ‘two seats in the cabin exploded’. The crew then reported that they were going to Minvody and then to Makhachkala, at the same time it was reported that the aircraft was losing control and that its hydraulics had failed.

Then the crew was switched to Rostov dispatchers, the crew said that they were going to take the aircraft to Baku, the dispatchers offered to go to Makhachkala, but then the crew said that they would fly to Aktau and warned that the cabin was running out of oxygen. After that, they were switched to Aktau dispatchers, who authorised the landing, at which point the negotiations ended.

Investigation of the disaster in accordance with the ICAO Convention is headed by Kazakhstan. Specialists from Azerbaijan, Russia, international experts and Embraer representatives are involved in the work. The black boxes have been seized and are being decoded with the participation of international experts.

Azerbaijani media, as well as Euronews and Reuters published materials discussing the version about the work of Russian air defence systems as one of the causes of the crash.

On 29 December, Ilham Aliyev said that an Azerbaijani civilian aircraft was hit by fire from a Russian air defence system.

The plane was hit by fire from the ground near the city of Grozny and nearly lost control. In addition, the plane was out of control due to electronic warfare equipment.

The plane crash occurred on 25 December near Aktau.  There were 67 people on board, including five crew members.  38 people died, while 29 survived.