Flight data for the Embraer aircraft, which crashed last week in Kazakhstan, is being sent to Brazil for data extraction, as per a statement from the Brazilian Air Force.
According to the announcement, information from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder will be analyzed in a laboratory operated by Brazilian aeronautical investigators in the capital, Brasilia.
The process will be overseen by representatives from Kazakhstan, Russia, and Azerbaijan.
Subsequently, the data will be forwarded to investigators in Kazakhstan.
The AZAL Embraer 190 jet crash-landed in Kazakhstan on December 25, resulting in the deaths of 38 of the 67 individuals onboard.
This incident led multiple airlines to cancel flights to Russia, including Israel’s El Al, which announced yesterday that it would suspend flights to Moscow until the end of March.
Russia has initiated a criminal investigation into the event.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has demanded that Russia take responsibility for mistakenly firing at the plane as it attempted to land at Grozny airport in southern Russia.
While Russia has not confirmed that one of its air defense missiles struck the aircraft, President Vladimir Putin informed Mr. Aliyev during a phone call over the weekend that the systems were active at the time and expressed regret that the incident occurred in Russian airspace.
Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general stated that the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee assured Azerbaijan: “Intensive measures are being carried out to identify those responsible and hold them criminally accountable.”
Russia has initiated a criminal inquiry into the matter.
However, it has not clarified whether it concurs that the plane was hit by one of its air defense missiles and has not publicly announced any actions concerning the identification or prosecution of any perpetrators.
On Sunday, Mr. Aliyev made a rare and direct condemnation of Russia, a close ally of Azerbaijan.
He remarked that the plane was “hit by accident” but expressed displeasure that Russia seemingly attempted to conceal the cause of the crash.
Insisting that Mr. Putin take responsibility, Mr. Aliyev also accused Russia of proposing alternative explanations that “clearly indicated the Russian side sought to cover up the issue.”
Russia stated that Grozny, located in the southern Chechen region, was under attack by Ukrainian drones when the AZAL airliner approached to land amidst thick fog.
Survivors have reported hearing explosions outside the aircraft, which then diverted over 400 km across the Caspian Sea towards the Kazakh city of Aktau, where it ultimately crash-landed.
The flight was en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in Russia’s southern Chechen region.
Kazakhstan has sent the plane’s black boxes to Brazil for analysis by the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center, a division of the Brazilian air force.
