As more details over Azerbaijan Airlines crash emerge, pilots and crew are hailed as heroes

As harrowing details emerge of the last moments of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432, which crashed on Wednesday in Aktau, the flight crew who did their best to save the passengers until the last moment are being hailed as heroes. 

Azerbaijan Airlines published the names of the five crew members, identifying Igor Kshnyakin and Aleksandr Kalyaninov as pilots and Hokuma Aliyeva, Zulfugar Asadov and Aydan Rahimli as flight attendants.

According to the airline, the Embraer 190 aircraft carried 37 Azerbaijani citizens, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan, and 16 Russian nationals. 

A total of 29 passengers survived the crash, including three children, while 38 perished as the pilots attempted to make an emergency landing near the Kazakh city of Aktau after flying the damaged aircraft over 300 miles across the Caspian Sea.  

Azerbaijani government sources have exclusively confirmed to Euronews on Thursday that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the crash. 

According to the sources, the missile was fired at Flight 8432 during drone air activity above Grozny, and the shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew as it exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight.

Government sources have told Euronews that the damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite the pilots’ requests for an emergency landing, and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan.

According to data, the plane’s GPS navigation systems were jammed throughout the flight path above the sea.

Captain Kshnyakin, First Officer Kalyaninov and chief flight attendant Aliyeva lost their lives in the crash landing. Hailing them as heroes, the Azerbaijani government decided on Friday that the three victims would be buried