"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."
The Russians are going to blame Ukraine because Russia was fighting off Ukrainian drones at the time. You may recall Russian separatists in Ukraine shot down another commercial airliner some years back over Ukraine.
There are so many apologists for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the isolationist libertarian movement. I am sure this will be one more reason to defend Putin.
I have no doubt that the Russians are both incompetent enough and evil enough to accidentally or on purpose shoot down an airliner, but I wonder about the report that the airliner passed over Russian airports because it was denied permission to land. Why did the pilots not land anyway? Did the russkies threaten to shoot again? Or is this misreporting? The pilot in command is the final authority for the safety of his aircraft.
ReplyDeleteFor example, when the Chinese fighter collided with the US Navy EP-3 back in 2001, the US Navy pilot flew his severely damaged plane to the Chinese military airfield on Hainan, despite receiving no answer (or permission) to his 15 calls for assistance.
It’s seems odd that the airliner crew would knowingly pass up a runway in an emergency if it was possible to land there.