Plane that crashed was shot at from Russia, 'some circles' tried hiding truth: Azerbaijan President
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday said that the passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan killing 38 people had been damaged due to shooting from the ground in Russia, Azerbaijan state television reported.
FollowAzerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday said that the passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan killing 38 people had been damaged due to shooting from the ground in Russia, Azerbaijan state television reported.
Aliyev said he regretted that "some circles" in Russia had tried to hush up the truth about the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines planes by sowing false narratives about the causes of the crash.
"The plane that crashed in Aktau was damaged as a result of ground fire," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated, according to reports.
"The facts are that the Azerbaijani plane sustained external damage over Russian territory, near the city of Grozny, and practically lost control. Our plane was rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare systems. This was the first damage inflicted on the aircraft," he said.
"One of the moments that saddened and surprised us was the fact that Russian official bodies proposed theories about the explosion of some gas cylinder. This clearly demonstrated that the Russian side wanted to cover up the issue, which, of course, does no credit to anyone."
Stressing that the plane was not deliberately shot down, Aliyev said, "Admitting guilt, promptly apologizing to Azerbaijan, a country considered friendly, and communicating this to the public — these were the necessary measures and steps that should have been taken."
"Unfortunately, during the first three days, all we heard from Russia were absurd versions," Aliyev concluded.
The development comes a day after, Russia's President Vladimir Putin apologised to Aliyev for what the Kremlin called a "tragic incident" over Russia in which the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed after Russian air defences were fired against Ukrainian drones.
The Kremlin said as the aircraft attempted to land in Grozny, Ukrainian drones were attacking Russia and Russian air defence forces repelled the attacks.
“During this time, Grozny, (the town of) Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones and Russian air defence was repelling these attacks,” the Kremlin said Putin told Aliyev, without saying that Russian air defence hit the plane, according to a report by The Guardian.
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