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Who shot down Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243?
Summary
A look back at the report of 4 February 2025 that pointed to a Russian Pantsir missile system in the loss of the Embraer E190.
What was said about the downing of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 as of 5 February 2025? A day earlier, on 4 February 2025, an Azerbaijani government source reported that the Azerbaijan Airlines E190 had been shot down by Russia's Pantsir missile system.
The report concerned a flight that was scheduled from Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku to Grozny in Russia. On 25 December 2024, the Embraer E190 operating it was severely damaged by a Russian surface-to-air missile as it approached Grozny.
What happened to the aircraft
The pilots attempted to divert, but the hydraulic system failed. The crew lost control, and the aircraft crashed near Aktau International Airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan. There were 62 passengers and 5 crew on board. Of those 67 people, 38 died, including both pilots and a flight attendant, while 29 survived with injuries.
Why the report mattered
The account from the Azerbaijani source named a specific weapon system, the Pantsir, and attributed the shoot-down to Russia. That matched the later description of the aircraft being struck by a Russian surface-to-air missile. The source was an unnamed government source, and the report came more than a month after the crash.
