Azerbaijani officials have blamed Russia’s missile defense system for the downing of their passenger plane in Kazakhstan, killing 38 passengers and saving 29.
According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu, senior Azerbaijani officials confirmed on Thursday media reports that an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane was shot down by a Russian missile defense system near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday.
Azerbaijani media reported, citing official sources, that preliminary results of the investigation into the incident showed that the Pantsir missile system hit the plane as it approached the city of Grozny.
A video obtained from social media shows a hole in a section of the crashed Azerbaijani plane — Reuters
According to the report, the plane’s communication system was completely paralyzed due to the use of a Russian electronic warfare system, as a result of which the plane disappeared from radar while in Russian airspace.
The statement added that the plane was only visible on radar when it was in the area around the Caspian Sea.
According to Kazakh authorities, 38 people died in the crash of the Embraer 190 plane while 29 survived, and both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have launched an investigation into the incident.
Both Azerbaijan Airlines and Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency say that initial findings have attributed the crash to a bird strike, but footage from the crash site shows large holes in the plane’s tail, leading to speculation that it was shot down.
Earlier on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on media reports claiming the plane crash was the result of an attack and urged everyone to wait until the investigation is complete.
Four sources familiar with the initial findings of the investigation into the plane crash told Reuters that the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane in Kazakhstan was shot down by a Russian air defense system.
Flight J2-8243 crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday, after the ill-fated flight diverted from a region in southern Russia where Moscow has deployed air defense systems to protect against Ukrainian drone attacks.
The ill-fated plane crashed on the opposite coast of the Caspian Sea, which Russia’s aviation regulator said was caused by a bird strike.
Authorities did not say why the plane crossed the sea. The Russian airport in Makhachkala, the closest to the plane’s flight route, was closed on Wednesday morning.
