Azerbaijan Airlines on Friday revealed that initial investigation into the crash of its aircraft in Kazakhstan that killed 38 was likely due to “external interference of a physical and technical nature”, fuelling discussions about potential involvement of Russian air defence systems.
The airline has also halted operations to 10 airports in Russia, stating their decision was “based on the preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft operating the Baku-Grozny flight J2-8243 of Azerbaijan Airlines due to physical and technical external interference”.
This comes after, Russia, earlier in the day, put the blame on Ukraine, claiming that Ukrainian drones were attacking the city of Grozny as the Azerbaijani Airlines plane attempted to land, before its subsequent crash in Kazakhstan. “Ukrainian military drones were carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure… at the time,” Chief of Russia’s civil aviation authority Dmitry Yadrov said, adding that the plane made two unsuccessful attempts to land. ” The pilot was offered alternative airports. He took the decision to go to Aktau airport” in Kazakhstan, he said.
Also read: ‘Ukrainian military was carrying out terrorist attacks when Azerbaijani flight tried to land,’ claims Russia
However, Ukraine has put the blame on Russia and said, “Russia must be held responsible for the downing of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane.”
The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft crashed in western Kazakhstan, resulting in the death of 38 amongst the 67 occupants. Various news sources claimed Azerbaijani officials suggesting that a Russian air defence missile might have caused the incident
