Strange Decision of Dispatchers for the Flight from Baku to Grozny: Lapshin

It is only strange to me that an Azerbaijani airplane flying from Baku to Grozny suddenly crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, which is on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. Reports state that birds allegedly entered the engines. Let's assume this is true. But what was the strange decision of the dispatchers to send the crashed airplane to Aktau, located about 500 kilometers from Baku? Blogger Alexander Lapshin wrote about this on his Facebook page.

“Excuse me, but Aktau is not the nearest alternative airport for flights from Baku to Grozny. There are airports much closer than 500 kilometers from Aktau:

• 1. First, you could return to Baku,
• 2. Gabala in Azerbaijan,
• 3. Zaqatala in Azerbaijan,
• 4. Makhachkala in Russia,
• 5. Immediately THREE military airports in Dagestan.

But it was decided, contrary to all logic and geography, to send the crashed airplane to Aktau. Would you say that all eight listed airports refused to accept an emergency landing? Or would you say that somewhere the runway is 200 meters shorter than it should be, and for that reason, they decided to send the airplane over the Caspian Sea, having almost no chance of survival?

I am absolutely not a pilot, but I know geography quite well, and I also know quite well Aliyev's Azerbaijan, whose authorities are fully capable of committing horrific crimes to punish someone (or to hide something). I know this from personal experience.

And the most interesting thing in this story is that are you not surprised that people are forced to fly by plane from Baku to Grozny when there have always been buses and minibuses operating? So, for those who do not know, I will tell you: Azerbaijan closed all land borders in 2020 due to Covid, and it is almost 2025 now; the whole world has opened its land borders, but Aliyev still keeps the borders closed. It is clear that it is for political reasons, but the indirect guilt for the fact that these people died belongs personally to Aliyev and his officials,” he wrote.