Kazakhstan Immediately Receives Data On The Black Box Of The Azerbaijan Plane That Crashed

The crash location is Azerbaijan Airlines. (Source: Isa Tazhenbaev / TASS)

Kazakhstan on Tuesday said decrypted data from black boxes belonging to the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane that crashed near the city of Aktau would arrive in the country in the coming days.

"In the coming days, members of the aviation accident investigation commission are expected to arrive in Astana with material that has been decrypted from flight recorders," the Kazakh Transport Ministry said in a statement on Telegram as reported by ANTARA from Anadolu, Tuesday, January 7.

The ministry said experts would study decrypted data from black boxes once they arrive in the capital city of Kazakhstan.

Last week, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the commission of investigations set up in Astana had sent two black boxes taken at the crash site to Brazil for decryption.

"I believe this step is the only right decision necessary for an objective and impartial investigation," Tokayev said.

On December 25, an AZAL plane on its way from the capital Azerbaijan, Baku, to Grozny in Russia's Chechen Republic, crashed 3 kilometers from the city of Aktau on the coast of the Kaspia Sea, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

The initial statement said the collision with birds may have been the cause of the crash of the Embraer 190 plane, although footage from the scene showed a large hole in the tail of the plane leading to speculation of a possible attack.

A day after the incident, senior Azerbaijani officials confirmed to Anadolu regarding reports that the plane crash was caused by a Russian missile system.

Later that month, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev to apologize for the incident that occurred in Russian airspace and expressed his condolences.

The day after, Aliyev said the tail of the plane that crashed was badly damaged by gunfire from ground and demanded Moscow issue a guilty confession, punishment for those responsible and compensation payments.