During a telephone conversation with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski expressed the readiness of the Polish side to provide possible technical support in investigating the causes of the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane near Aktau, Kazakhstan.
The press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported, News.Az reports.
R. Sikorsky also once again expressed his condolences in connection with the tragic crash of the AZAL aircraft on December 25, 2024, flying from Baku to Grozny.
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov thanked for the condolences and solidarity shown.
Let us recall that the Polish “Board No. 1” Tu-154 crashed on April 10, 2010, while approaching the Smolensk-Severny airport in western Russia. 96 people died, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, high-ranking government officials, members of parliament, and commanders of the Polish army and NATO forces.
A year after the tragedy, the Interstate Aviation Committee (a CIS body headquartered in Moscow – ed. ) announced following an investigation that the immediate cause of the crash was the crew’s decision not to divert to an alternate airfield in foggy conditions, and that the systemic causes were shortcomings in the training of the presidential detachment’s pilots.
Poland later conducted its own investigation, which established that the cause of the crash was deliberate explosions inside the plane. The relevant commission came to the conclusion that there were at least two explosions on board, one of which occurred near the left wing. The body also cited a number of indirect testimonies that were intended to confirm the version about the explosion. These included the absence of a crater from the fall of the 70-ton machine, as well as the fact that some of the burnt debris was found 100 m before the crash site.