Three explosions occurred near the AZAL aircraft – flight attendant

Asadov Zulfuqar, a flight attendant who survived the crash of the Embraer plane on December 25 belonging to AZAL airline, shared what happened with the aircraft. Currently in the hospital, Asadov told journalists that the plane made two approaches to Grozny airport but was unable to land.

"On the third approach, we felt an external impact on the plane. Passengers panicked, and we started calming them down. Immediately after that, we felt a second impact, and I felt pain in my forearm. It was a fragment that seriously wounded me, and I began to lose blood. After that, there was another explosion that both we and the passengers felt," he said.

The flight attendant said that the captain decided to fly to another airport, but the nearest cities did not accept the plane, and it had to fly to Aktau. "Initially, the captain planned to land the plane on water, but then decided to land on land, and it was clear that it would be a hard landing."

Asadov said that his colleague, the flight attendant, urged the passengers to tighten their seat belts. When the plane hit the ground, the cabin detached from the front part, and the plane broke apart. Asadov also denied reports that an oxygen tank exploded on board the plane. "If that had happened, the plane would have crashed immediately," he noted.

These testimonies from the living witness finally confirm that the plane was shot at, and the holes in its fuselage are the result of three rocket impacts.