Azerbaijan Airlines

Is Azerbaijan Airlines safe?

Yes, on most of its network. AZAL, Azerbaijan's state airline, has had no fatal accident in 20 years, holds an IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary, and its home country is in FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary and absent from the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary. The catch is where it flies. On 25 December 2024 one of its Embraer 190s was wrecked by weapon fragments over southern Russia and crashed near Aktau, killing 38 people. We do not count that as an accident, but it is the main reason the operating environment scores only 50. Overall: 72.

What happened on flight 8243?

The Embraer 190, registered 4K-AZ65, left Baku for Grozny in Chechnya with 62 passengers and 5 crew. Kazakhstan's preliminary report of 4 February 2025 describes what followed. Descending towards Grozny, the crew lost both GPS receivers and asked for an older NDB approach. In fog and low cloud, they abandoned two attempts to land. Russia's aviation agency later said Ukrainian drones were attacking the area that morning.

At 05:13:31 UTC, during the second go-around, the cockpit recorder picked up a loud bang. Within seconds two of the three hydraulic systems emptied and the third lost pressure, the cabin depressurised, and the elevators, ailerons and rudder froze in neutral. A flight attendant reported that two seats had "exploded". With no flight controls, the pilots flew on for more than an hour across the Caspian Sea, steering with engine thrust alone, and tried to land at Aktau. The jet hit the ground about 5 km short of the runway. The captain, first officer, a flight attendant and 35 passengers died; 29 people survived.

The wreck had many holes in the tail, fin, left wing and left engine, some of them rectangular, and investigators found many foreign objects inside the aircraft.

Who is responsible?

The investigators and governments involved have said this, in order:

• 28 December 2024: Russia's president apologised to Azerbaijan's president that "the tragic incident" happened in Russian airspace while air defences were repelling a drone attack.
• 29 December 2024: Azerbaijan's president said the aircraft had been shot down by Russia, though not intentionally, and refused a Russian-led investigation.
• 9 October 2025: Russia's president said two missiles fired by the Russian military had detonated near the aircraft, and promised compensation.
• 25 December 2025: Kazakhstan's interim statement found the damage was most likely caused by warhead fragments of iron-based alloy, and that no explosive traces came from inside the aircraft. It did not establish where the warhead came from.

The Aviation Safety Network classes the crash as unlawful interference. Like Malaysia Airlines' MH17, we describe it in full but leave it out of the accident score. Kazakhstan's final report is still pending. One open question does touch the airline: a working group is reviewing how the Russian and Azerbaijani authorities and AZAL assessed the risk of flying to Grozny that day.

The record before Aktau

AZAL's last fatal accident was on 23 December 2005, when an Antonov An-140 bound for Aktau lost its attitude indicators at night after take-off from Baku and spiralled into the shore at Nardaran, killing all 23 on board; counterfeit parts fitted during production were blamed. That is now just outside our 20-year window. In 1995 a Tu-134 crashed at Nakhchivan with 52 dead. Since then the only damage accident in the Aviation Safety Network data is an A319 whose nose gear collapsed when it ran off the runway at Istanbul in August 2010; all 127 people got out unhurt.

AZAL is a small airline: 8,462 flights in the first half of 2026. With so few flights, a 20-year clean record means less than it would for a large carrier, so the accident record scores 80, not 90+.

What does AZAL fly?

The fleet stood at 29 aircraft in July 2026. Narrowbodies are the Airbus A320 family: older A319s and A320s, four A320neos and, since June 2026, a first A321neo. Long-haul and busy routes use Boeing 767-300ERs and 787-8 Dreamliners, and Embraer 190s fly thinner routes. AZAL plans to grow to 50 aircraft by 2032 and does not publish an average age.

How to fly AZAL more safely

• Check the routing on Russian and Caucasus flights. EASA's bulletin for Russian airspace, last revised in July 2026, stays active until 31 January 2027. Flights into southern Russia carry a risk that has nothing to do with the airline's maintenance or crews.
• Expect GPS problems in the region to be normal. Jamming forced flight 8243 onto older approach aids. It is common across the Caucasus and the Black Sea area, and crews are trained for it, but it narrows the margins in bad weather.
• Prefer European, Turkish and Gulf routes if you have a choice. That is most of AZAL's network, flown on the same aircraft by the same crews, without the conflict-zone exposure.

How we scored it

The accident record (80) reflects 20 years without a counted fatal accident, on a small number of flights. Oversight (72) gives credit for IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary and FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary but notes the open review of conflict-zone risk assessment. Incidents (65) are hard to judge because few reports are published, and the environment (50) reflects flights near an active war. Compare Turkish Airlines, which shares many of AZAL's routes.