Chilling Footage: Passenger Sends Message to His Wife Just Moments Before Azerbaijan Airlines Jet 'is Shot Down' Leaving 38 People Dead
A passenger onboard Azerbaijan Airlines recorded a terrifying video moments before the aircraft crashed in Kazakhstan.
Dec. 26 2024, Published 3:30 p.m. ET
A chilling video from an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger captured his final moments.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the passenger, who has been identified as Subkhon Rakhimov, began filming the heartbreaking video message to his wife when he noticed something had gone terribly wrong with the Embraer 190 aircraft.
In the video, oxygen masks can be seen hanging above the seats as passengers were heard crying and praying moments before the passenger plane plummeted to the ground and crashed in fiery explosion in Kazakhstan, killing 38 out of the 67 passengers and five crew members on board.
Passenger Subkhon Rakhimov recorded the video to send to his wife as the plane lost altitude.
Rakhimov told his wife the plane unsuccessfully attempted to land several times.
Miraculously, Rakhimov survived the crash and filmed a follow-up video surveilling the damage, which he walked around the wreckage as he praised the Azerbaijan Airlines flight crew for helping passengers survive.
The jarring footage comes as Russia's air defense has been accused of mistaking the aircraft for a Ukrainian drone and subsequently shooting down the passenger plane.
Passengers could be heard praying as oxygen masks dangled above seats inside the plane.
38 people perished in the fiery crash on Christmas Day in Kazakhstan.
Partial communication released from the pilots and air traffic control further suggested a catastrophic event unfolded, initially believed to be a collision with a flock of birds.
While investigators are still working to determine the cause of the crash, damage recorded from the wreckage, as well as an intact portion of the plane, is said to be consistent with a strike. Surviving passengers additionally recalled hearing an explosion outside the plane before it began losing altitude.
The aircraft was hit as it was preparing to land in Grozny, Chechnya, a region controlled by Vladimir Putin crony Ramzan Kadyrov.
Chechnya has been under attack in recent weeks by Ukrainian military and its believed a Pantsir-S1 was used to target the plane.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev declared a day of mourning nationwide on Thursday, December 26.
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Footage taken from the crash site showed rescue workers combing through the wreckage in search of passengers.
One trapped woman could be heard yelling, "Help me please!" as a firefighter asked if she needed to be lifted from the debris, to which she confirmed, "yes".
In the aftermath of the Christmas Day crash, a day of mourning was declared in Azerbaijan by President Ilham Aliyev, who has cancelled a planned visit to Russia for an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a group of former Soviet nations.
Aliyev's office said the president "ordered the prompt initiation of urgent measures to investigate the causes of the disaster".
Across the country national flags were lowered to half-staff and traffic came to halt at noon. Signals from ships and trains were also set off to honor those lost in the crash.
