There are moments when documents speak louder than statements, and moments when they speak instead of them. The recently surfaced letter attributed to Russia’s Investigative Committee regarding the crash of an AZAL aircraft belongs firmly to the second category. Its tone is restrained, almost clinical. Clouds, failed landing attempts, and an unfortunate impact with the ground. A tragedy without an author. A case without responsibility.

At first glance, everything appears orderly. Time stamps are precise, the sequence of events neatly arranged, the language deliberately neutral. The disaster is reduced to a chain of impersonal circumstances, where nature intervenes, and institutions merely observe. Yet the real problem with such narratives is never what they contain, but what they carefully avoid naming.

Because memory, inconveniently, has not been grounded.

A year ago, the airspace near Grozny was not simply overcast; it was militarised. The airport was operating amid what Russian officials later described as a drone threat. Airspace was not closed. Civilian crews were not warned. Communications were disrupted. Shortly afterwards, a civilian aircraft fell from the sky. These are not speculative interpretations or emotional accusations; they are elements acknowledged in different forms during the first days after the tragedy, supported by physical evidence and expert assessments.

This is where the newly published explanation begins to resemble less an investigation and more a curtain. Weather, after all, is an ideal witness: it cannot testify, it cannot contradict, and it cannot demand accountability. Clouds do not ask why air defence systems were active near civilian flight paths, nor why standard aviation safety protocols were quietly set aside.

Recently, photos of an official document sent to Azerbaijan by the Russian authorities regarding the termination of the criminal case into the AZAL........

© AzerNews