Another interesting detail has emerged regarding the AZAL Embraer E190 aircraft, which was shot down on December 25, 2024, while approaching Grozny.

Axar.az reports that it should be noted that the other day, the editorial office published a letter from air defense captain Dmitry Paladichuk, who claimed that the plane was shot down by order of the Russian Ministry of Defense, as well as a video depicting the moment the plane was shot down.

Paladichuk admitted in his explanatory letter that he was the crew chief of the 274th Pantsir-S portable anti-aircraft missile complex combat vehicle of the 1st anti-aircraft missile and artillery division of military unit No. 75564. According to him, he was on combat duty in the city when the AZAL aircraft was shot down while approaching Grozny (December 25, 2024).

He described his actions in detail in chronological order after receiving the order to move to readiness level No. 1 and destroy the target.

However, from the same letter and the telephone conversations attached to it, it became clear that Paladichuk, although he fired two shots from the Pantsir-S, did not recognize the silhouette of a civilian aircraft, since the combat vehicle was in a malfunctioning state and he acted only on orders from the Russian Ministry of Defense.

During interrogation, Paladichuk testified that in December 2024, he entered the operational subordination of the 51st Air Defense Division to perform tasks to protect and defend the facilities of the city of Grozny. Before that, he served in Syria. Combat vehicle No. 274, from which the shots were fired, has been deployed there since 2017. The vehicle had not been properly maintained, and upon arrival in Grozny, problems arose with the operation of the autonomous optical post, which is designed to search for targets using radar data and determine the location of the target and the missile about each other.

Because of this problem, the crew of the combat vehicle could not clearly distinguish the silhouette of the target, and according to Captain Paladichuk, on December 15, 2024, he had to blindly fire at air targets.

The combat vehicle also had a malfunctioning multifunctional radar station. The thermal imaging device also failed.

The audio recordings contain Captain Paladichuk's comments on the situation in question, in response to questions from his fellow servicemen about what happened. So, in negotiations with one of them, Paladichuk said: "Yes, Max, I fired twice. I gave the order to operate, after the missiles passed by, he said that this was our plane. My head hurts, and I'm still in fear. I almost killed our own. It's good that they passed by. I don't know, my firing range and azimuth were completely different, I fired in a different direction, but the missiles were going to destroy. After they flew away, the remains could hit the plane. I didn't see anything visually; I had problems with the apparatus. The drones were approaching both from the west and from the south. I have two directions: northwest and southwest. The investigators offended me; they took all the documents. It's good that there were magazines left from Syria, I didn't throw them away," Paladichuk admits.

"The silhouettes of the flying drones are almost indistinguishable. There is a problem with the multifunctional radar station and the optical-electronic system. Even at a distance of 4 km, I see only a big spot, and I can’t distinguish the aircraft-type drone at all. In Syria, I could distinguish the silhouettes at a greater distance, but not here. The machine has been in southern Syria since 2017, was in operation, and naturally, 90% of the spare parts were not provided," the crew chief tells another colleague.

The condition of the "Pantsir-S" when it was stationed in Grozny was unsatisfactory, which is one of the reasons for the incident. Captain Paladichuk claims that the decision to open fire was made on the order of the duty officer of the 51st Air Defense Division. At the same time, the detection equipment of the "Pantsir-S" crew was not in working order, which did not allow for determining the target.

As the case progressed, it turned out that Paladichuk received the order to fire from the duty officer via a mobile phone due to the failure of the combat vehicle's standard communication equipment, which is a gross violation of the established instructions and indicates an inadequate attitude on the part of the higher management.

It turns out that the tragedy, which claimed the lives of 38 people, occurred due to the fault of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, or rather, the leadership of the 51st Air Defense Division of the 4th Army of the Air Force and the Air Defense Division of the Russian Aerospace Forces. The military leadership did not ensure the creation of the necessary service conditions for the crew of the combat vehicle, and also did not exercise due control over the actions of this crew.