These are the heartbreaking last words of a flight attendant aboard the doomed Azerbaijan Airlines plane that was reportedly shot down by a Russian missile on Christmas Day.
Chief flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva has been praised for bravely reassuring passengers as pilot Captain Igor Kshnyakin and co-pilot Aleksandr Kalyaninov desperately tried to save the plane after it crashed over Chechnya, Russia.
The pilots bravely flew Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 out of Russian airspace into Kazakhstan before it crashed.
Meanwhile, the flight attendant’s voice could be heard over the tannoy as she tried to calm the passengers.
In one clip, the flight attendant could be heard telling the occupants, “Everything will be fine,” as distressed passengers look around the plane.
It has now been confirmed that Aliyeva was among the 38 of the 67 people who died on board.
Aliyeva’s family have since paid tribute to the “cheerful” flight attendant, adding that “she always said we should be proud of her.”
It comes after Azerbaijan today said it had found during a preliminary investigation that “external interference” was responsible for the fatal crash and claimed Russia downed the plane with a surface-to-air missile before trying to cover it up.
Flight attendant Hokuma Aliyeva died in the Azerbaijan Airlines crash on Christmas Day
It has now been confirmed that Aliyeva was among the 38 of the 67 people who died on board
This is the horrific moment a passenger plane hit the ground in a fireball during an emergency landing on Christmas Day
“Based on the opinion of experts and the words of eyewitnesses, it can be concluded that there was outside interference,” Azerbaijani Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev told reporters.
“It is necessary to find out what kind of weapon it is,” he added, citing reports from survivors of hearing “three explosions” as the plane flew over Grozny.
The development in the tragic story of Wednesday’s crash, which killed 38 people, came as a flight attendant on the stricken plane revealed he suffered a shrapnel wound when explosions rocked outside the doomed flight near Russia.
Crash survivor Zulfugar Asadov gave an extraordinary account of the flight, which crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing 38 people.
Mr Asadov – who was convinced he had been killed in the crash – said he was “injured in the arm by an impact that occurred outside the plane” after the plane aborted its attempts to land in Grozny, Russia due to the bad weather.
“I grabbed a towel, bandaged my arm tightly and (colleague) Aydan (Ragimli) helped me,” he said. “We continued the flight.”
The flight attendant revealed that the pilot had tried to make an emergency landing in the Caspian Sea “because the plane’s engine was not functioning properly” but changed his mind and continued towards Kazakhstan, fearing for the safety of the passengers.
He spoke amid chilling allegations that Russia had wrongly attacked the plane with a surface-to-air missile, then tried to prevent it from landing on its territory, expecting it to sink in the Caspian Sea.
The photo shows rescuers crawling into the plane wreckage looking for survivors
There are people standing next to the back of the crashed passenger plane
Footage of the crash showed the plane bursting into flames as it hit the ground, causing thick black smoke to rise
Emergency services are pictured above at the scene of the plane crash
Evidence was mounting that Russian air defenses had hit the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which was likely mistakenly targeted as a Ukrainian drone.
The apparent shrapnel damage to the aircraft – seen in the intact rear section of the doomed aircraft at Aktau in Kazakhstan – is consistent with such an attack. This also applies to the stories of surviving passengers who spoke of an explosion outside the plane.
Images from the crash site show rescuers searching for survivors on the Azerbaijani Airlines flight from Baku to the Russian city of Grozny, which crashed with 67 passengers and five crew on board.
Chaos ensued as rescuers entered the severed rear of the plane, where several people lay on the ground. Amazingly, some were found alive.
A trapped woman shouted to rescuers: ‘Please help me!’. A firefighter asked her if she needed help getting up, and she confirmed that she needed to be lifted from the rubble.
One terrifying video shows the moment the plane caught fire and broke into several parts as it hit the ground, sending thick black smoke billowing from the wrecked plane.
Later, bloodied and bruised passengers were seen stumbling from a section of the fuselage that remained intact.
Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s national carrier, said the Embraer 190 had “made an emergency landing” about three kilometers from Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.
‘A plane on the Baku-Grozny route crashed near the city of Aktau. It is owned by Azerbaijan Airlines,” the Kazakh ministry said on Telegram.
The Embraer E190AR with registration number 4K-AZ65 transmitted a distress signal at an altitude of 650 meters above the Caspian Sea.
Prior to the crash, the crew had reported a strong impact to the hull. They assumed the plane had hit a flock of birds.
Authorities in Kazakhstan said they had begun investigating several possible versions of what happened, including a technical problem, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.