Summary
An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 and injuring 29, with speculation mounting that Russia’s military may have been involved.
Experts doubt Russia’s suggestion of a bird strike, citing damage to the plane’s fuselage consistent with shrapnel from an airborne weapon.
The plane’s GPS system was reportedly malfunctioning, and survivors reported hearing an explosion before the crash.
Investigations by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia are ongoing, with black boxes recovered.
The incident evokes comparisons to the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
Rüppell’s vulture has been confirmed to fly at up to 37,000 ft.
It could have plotted an intercept course rather than being a rocket, and come at the plane from the front. As long as the bird happened to be carrying a sufficiently large, armed, proximity-fuzed fragmentation warhead and was flying an intercept course, I think that would have done it.