[marcusmaximus]

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.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Color me not surprised. Chalk another one up for Ivan. Welcome to the Airliner Shoot Down Club.

[rrrod]

I’m shocked!!!!/s

[tired&retired]

Is this the one that 29 people survived the crash?

[Rural_Michigan]

It was flying to Russia....

[jerod]

[Navy Patriot]

The ‘Forgotten’ US Shootdown of Iranian Airliner Flight 655­

[McGruff]

“a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash” because they were under attack from Ukrainian drones at the time.

[Paul R.]

Not noted in this article is that there was fog @ Grozny and the plane had tried to land 3 times unsuccessfully before it was hit. Nor is the exact timing of the claimed drone activity clear, although a drone attack in fog does make some sense, as does the possibility of getting numerous radar blips confused.

The civilian population near the Aktau airport is much smaller than @ Grozny, and not built up so close, either. There is a lot of empty, flat land around Aktau. Basically, if there’s a possibility of a crash landing, and you miss or don’t make it to the runway, Aktau is a much better choice.

I’d speculate the pilots still had some hydraulic control when they headed out over the Caspian Sea, but the remaining partially functional system(s) bled out.

Unanswered:

Was the plane in or returning to a holding pattern when hit, or was it already diverting to another airport?

Did Grozny ATC inform the AD that they had a civilian jetliner in a holding pattern / trying to land, with necessary updates?

Why the hell would Russian AD jam the plane (GPS) once it was more than 1/2 way over the Caspian Sea and headed to Aktau?