Baku [Azerbaijan], December 27: Azerbaijani authorities believe the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people, was shot by a Russian anti-aircraft missile, multiple reports said on Thursday.
The Turkish state news agency Anadolu cited anonymous senior state officials in Azerbaijan as saying the plane was hit by a missile on Wednesday. In Azerbaijan, the internet news portal caliber.az also referred to unnamed government sources. According to these sources, the Embraer 190 en route from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, Russia was hit by a Pantsir S anti-aircraft missile.
Ukrainian drone activity had been registered in the Russian region of Chechnya of which Grozny is the capital, around the same time.
The pilots requested an emergency landing at the nearest Russian airports, Mineralnye Vody or Makhachkala. This was not authorized, so the crew steered the damaged aircraft across the Caspian Sea to Aktau in Kazakhstan, according to the report.
The plane with 67 people on board crashed and exploded during the attempted landing in Kazakhstan. There were 29 survivors.
Photos of the tail section of the aircraft show damage that resembles the impact holes of shrapnel from anti-aircraft weapons.
According to Kazakhstan, the two flight recorders were found on Thursday. The analysis of the devices, along with radio communications, is expected to help investigators determine the cause of the crash.
Earlier on Thursday, the Kremlin urged restraint in speculating about the cause of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash.
"An investigation is currently under way; every incident in aviation must be investigated by specialized aviation authorities," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian state-run TASS news agency.
Azerbaijan meanwhile observed a national day of mourning, with flags flying at half-mast, according to Kazakh agency Tengrinews, citing local media.
Source: Qatar Tribune
