Skeleton found at sea may belong to fighter jet pilot

A human skeleton was discovered in Caspian waters near a village in Azerbaijan’s Siyazan district on Monday evening.

Siyazan Prosecutor Hasan Hanifayev said the law enforcers were looking into the possibility that the skeleton belonged to one of the pilots of a MIG 29 fighter jet which crashed in the Shurabad section of the sea on January 29. The theory was put forth after an initial check-up by forensic experts. The facts will be established after the samples taken from the bones are genetically tested at the Moscow Expertise Institute and a conclusion is made.

The plane had crashed near the Khyzy district’s Shurabad settlement during a training flight and plunged into the Caspian, killing pilots Fahraddin Asgarov and Afgan Aslanov. Aslanov’s body was recovered about a month after the accident, while search for Asgarov’s body was unsuccessful.*