The transcript of the AZAL pilots' negotiations before the crash was leaked to the network

The crew of the crashed Embraer-190 aircraft of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) independently made all decisions about changing course and returning to the departure airport, follows from the transcript of the pilots' negotiations with dispatchers published by the Baza telegram channel.

The crew talked to the dispatchers of Grozny, Rostov-on-Don and Aktau. From the document, the authenticity of which has not been confirmed, it follows that the pilots themselves decided to return to Baku and refused to land in Makhachkala. In addition, it is heard on the recording that the pilot informed the dispatchers about the "bird strike" and damage to the cockpit. Dispatchers offered the pilots of the flight to land the plane first in Grozny, then in Makhachkala, but they chose to head for Baku.

"Grozny, the management has failed. A bird strike in the cockpit... uh, a bird strike and two seats exploded in the cockpit," says the pilot.

At 8.18, he says that he is losing control of the aircraft, and a little later — that the pressure is rising in the cabin. Then the crew still decides to listen to the dispatcher's recommendation and land in Makhachkala, where there is a slight cloud cover, but after a couple of minutes it sets course for Baku again. At 8.22, the liner's hydraulics fail. At 8.39 the aileron and elevator control system stops working, <url> cites the chronology.

The crew requests that firefighters, evacuation services and a doctor arrive on board immediately upon arrival at the airport of the Azerbaijani capital. At 8.52, oxygen runs out in the passenger cabin, people begin to lose consciousness. The pilot makes the assumption that the oxygen tank exploded. Ten minutes later, the board requests an emergency landing in Aktau.

A passenger plane originally flying from Baku in Grozny, fell in Aktau on December 25. There were 67 people on board, including five crew members. 29 survived.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that the airliner was disoriented by Russian electronic warfare systems, and then it was damaged as a result of an impact from the ground and lost control. In his opinion, the ship was not shot down on purpose, but the Russian side allegedly deliberately hides what happened.

"Perhaps when the plane was damaged, when it was shot down, the pilot could perceive it as a collision with the plane. Because no one, probably, could have imagined that in a friendly country our plane would be fired from the ground," Aliyev said.

Russia needs to take responsibility for what happened, and not voice "delusional versions," the head of Azerbaijan said.

On January 15, Embraer 190 aircraft black boxes were returned to Kazakhstan from Brazil.

On the eve of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Embraer-190 black boxes do not confirm the information distributed in The media version of the causes of the disaster, and urged "not to escalate the atmosphere."

"The black boxes were opened. Their contents have already given a lot of interesting information, the content of which once again convinces us that we need to wait for a full—fledged investigation, now not to escalate the atmosphere in the media space using information that, by and large, is not confirmed by information from black boxes," the minister said.