Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov awarded the crew members of the AZAL Embraer E190 passenger plane that crashed in December 2024 with medals “For Services to the Chechen Republic”.

Axar.az reports that the Chechen leader wrote about this on his social network account.

“Friends! I have decided to award the surviving crew members of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E190 passenger plane that crashed in December last year while performing a Baku-Grozny flight. Crew members Zulfugar Asadov and Aydan Rahimli, who demonstrated extraordinary courage and high professionalism, were presented with the award “For Services to the Chechen Republic”, - Kadyrov wrote.

He said that a memorial plaque would also be erected in Grozny in memory of those who died in the plane crash.

It should be noted that on December 25, 2024, an AZAL aircraft operating a Baku-Grozny flight was attacked by a Russian air defense system ("Pantsir") in the sky of Grozny and was seriously damaged. Since it was not allowed to land at Grozny and nearby airports, the aircraft headed for Kazakhstan and crashed near Aktau, to serious damage. Of the 67 people on board, 38 (including 3 crew members) died, and 29 survived.