Azerbaijan plane skids onto beach, miraculously saving half of passengers

[Anchor]

We look into the Azerbaijan passenger plane crash.

It is analyzed that nearly half of the passengers were able to survive because the passenger plane glided down onto the beach.

As various questions arise regarding the cause of the accident, the possibility of a mistaken attack by Russian forces has also been raised.

Reporter Ahn Da-young has the details.

[Report]

At the moment of the crash of the passenger plane, the center of the aircraft glides down and touches the ground.

Although the front of the passenger plane was completely burned due to the explosion, the rear part was able to remain relatively intact.

In fact, some passengers were seen walking out on their own from the rear of the split aircraft.

This is cited as a reason why nearly half of the 67 passengers, including crew members, were able to survive, with 29 people making it out alive.

[Zhulfuqa Asadov/Surviving Crew Member: "Don't worry, please tell my mom not to worry. I'm glad to be safe."]

The fact that the passenger plane crashed onto the wide beach of the Caspian Sea without additional collisions with buildings also increased the survival rate.

New questions are being raised regarding the cause of the accident.

This is due to circumstances that cannot be explained solely by the initial claim of a bird strike.

The multiple holes in the tail section of the passenger plane and the fact that the aircraft experienced strong GPS jamming at the time of the accident are also drawing attention.

There are claims that Russian forces may have mistaken the passenger plane for a Ukrainian drone and attacked it.

[Ilham Aliyev/Azerbaijan President: "The cause of the crash has not yet been determined. There are various hypotheses, but I think it is too early to discuss them."]

The black box recovered from the crash site is expected to be the key to determining the cause of the accident.

This is Ahn Da-young reporting for KBS News from Paris.