Marta Gichko12:27, 26.12.24

Russian air defense operators knew that there was a civilian aircraft in the air, but they still switched the Pantsir to automatic mode.

The AZAL passenger Embraer 190 that crashed near Aktau (Kazakhstan) was apparently shot down by a Russian Pantsir , which was operating in automatic mode, Defense Express writes.

Immediately after the first photos and videos from the crash site of the passenger plane flying from Baku to Grozny appeared, it became clear that the version about the crash being caused by a flock of birds was nonsense. The footage shows the characteristic marks from the debris of an anti-aircraft missile on the tail section of the plane.

That day, Russian air defense repelled a drone attack over Grozny. The Russians deployed the Pantsir air defense missile system. However, experienced operators could not confuse a drone, a light aircraft, and a large airliner with a wingspan of about 30 meters on radar. But Russian operators did. The publication claims that the Pantsir could have been triggered automatically.

In 2020, the Russians boasted that the Pantsirs had a special innovation – a fully automatic mode. According to the developers, the system has “signs of artificial intelligence” and will be able to shoot down targets without human intervention.

The Russian Defense Ministry boasted that “artificial intelligence” shoots down targets much more effectively than with the help of an operator. In fact, it works according to a fairly simple algorithm – shoot down everything that is within range without selecting targets.

Despite the fact that any civil aircraft signals that it is civil – in the Russian Federation this is ignored. Such automatic operating modes exist both in individual air defense systems and are implemented through unified control systems, when one system automatically controls several air defense systems at once, operating without operator intervention.

The Tor air defense missile system also has an automatic mode of operation. Apparently, it was from this system that the Boeing-737 of the Ukrainian airline MAU, flight PS752, was shot down in automatic mode near Tehran on January 8, 2020.

The publication writes that the events with the Azerbaijani plane flight No. 8243 apparently look like this:

• in the Grozny area, an Embraer 190 was fired upon from a Pantsir air defense missile system;
• The operator of the complex, who switched it to automatic mode, received a command from his command and all levels were aware of the presence of a civilian aircraft in the airspace.

“That is, the Russian military actually deliberately gave permission to fire on the passenger airliner. And at 09:35 local time, the Azerbaijani Embraer 190 sent out a distress signal. Given the available information, as a result of the hit, the plane’s control system was damaged and it was only partially controllable,” the publication writes.

There is no official recording of the conversations between the pilots and Russian dispatchers, but for some reason the Azerbaijani plane was forced to fly across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan. The publication predicts that the Russians wanted to “resolve the issue with the plane” when it crashed outside of Russia, so the aircraft was banned from landing in Grozny and at nearby airfields.

The crew managed to keep the crippled plane in the air for more than 400 km and reach Aktobe. The pilots tried to save the passengers. The fact that 32 passengers out of 67 who were found on board survived is something between a miracle and the skill of the pilots who died, the publication concluded.

(C)UNIAN 2024