Another day, another Russian atrocity | The Manila Times

FOR the second time in the decade-long war it has waged against Ukraine, Russia has shot down a civilian airliner, and if recent history is any indication, it is likely that it would again escape any meaningful accountability for doing so. The first was Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, shot down by a Russian Buk 9M38 anti-aircraft missile over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board. The second occurred on Wednesday this week — Christmas Day — the target this time being Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432, which crashed near the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

Flight 8432, an Embraer E190 regional jet, had been making a short flight from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny in the Russian republic of Chechnya, and it was hit by what is believed to have been a Russian Pantsir-S antiaircraft missile as it began its approach into Grozny Airport. Initially, the story being conveyed by international media was quite confusing; various causes for the crash, including some kind of mechanical failure or being struck by a flock of birds, were reported. Why an Azerbaijani plane that had been on a short-haul route on the western side of the Caspian Sea had crashed on the eastern side some 400 kilometers from where it was supposed to be was a complete mystery at first.