Russia's Putin dials Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, apologises over fatal plane crash in Kazakhstan
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, for what the Kremlin said was a “tragic incident” in Russian airspace involving the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25.
FollowRussian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, for what the Kremlin said was a “tragic incident” in Russian airspace involving the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25.
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.
'External Interference' caused plane crash in Kazakhstan: Azerbaijan Airlines
Azerbaijan Airlines said "external physical and technical interference" led to the plane crash in Kazakhstan in which 38 people died out of 67 on board.
On Christmas, the Embraer 190 aircraft operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, took off from Baku for Grozny in Russia's Chechnya. The aircraft was 'denied landing due to fog' in Grozny and diverted far off the Caspian Sea, where it crashed in the Aktau city of Kazakhstan, killing 38 and 29 surviving the crash.
A day later, reporters emerged that a Russian surface-to-air missile may have caused the deadly crash, forcing the aircraft to limp off the Caspian Sea and then crashing in an open field.
An investigation is still underway but a pro-government Azerbaijani website, Caliber, cited unnamed officials in a report and said that a missile from a Pantsir-S air defence system downed the plane.
Videos from the crash site showed holes in the aircraft's nose and damage from shrapnel from the missiles, an observation pointed out by military and aviation experts in foreign media reports such as the Wall Street Journal, Euronews and AFP.
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