In a significant development, the 17-member international team investigating the AZAL plane crash near Aktau, Kazakhstan, is set to return to Astana from Brazil with the decoded data from the aircraft's flight recorders, commonly known as "black boxes."
The Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in response to an inquiry by the Kazakhstani bureau of Report, confirmed that the team, comprising experts from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Russia, will immediately commence the analysis of the retrieved data upon their arrival.
"The commission members are on their way back to Kazakhstan," the ministry stated. "We have 17 international experts who traveled to Brazil. Once they arrive, they will promptly begin examining and interpreting the decoded black box data."
The ministry added, "They will be in Kazakhstan in the near future."
The AZAL passenger plane, operating flight Baku-Grozny, tragically crashed on December 25 near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. Among the 67 individuals on board, 38 lost their lives, while 29 survived the harrowing ordeal.
Preliminary findings suggest that the plane's demise was a result of physical and technical external interference that occurred in Russian airspace above Grozny. The black box data is expected to shed more light on the exact cause of the crash.