Commercial flight that killed 38 passengers was downed by Russian air defence system, sources claim
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: @fl360aero/Twitter/ISSA TAZHENBAYEV/Getty
The plane that crashed off the coast of the Caspian Sea was gunned down by Russia, according to four sources in Azerbaijan told Reuters.
At least 38 of the 67 people onboard the Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft died while en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, capital of the Chechnya region in southern Russia.
However it would sadly fail to make it to its destination and crashed on Wednesday morning (December 25).
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According to Kazakh officials, the people on board were citizens of four different countries, 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, 6 Kazakh citizens, 3 Kyrgyz citizens.
Now, the news agency Reuters has reported that it spoke with 'four sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation' who claimed that the plane 'was downed by a Russian air defence system'.
The Embraer 190 passenger jet was allegedly shot down after it diverted from 'an area of Russia in which Moscow has used air defence systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months', the agency writes.
However, Russia’s aviation watchdog said that the plane suffered a bird strike which resulted in an emergency situation on the aircraft, and it was also reported that it had to divert from its original route due to heavy fog and was intending to make an emergency landing.
President Aliyev also said: “According to the information provided to me, the AZAL airline plane, flying on the Baku-Grozny route, changed its course due to worsening weather conditions and began heading toward Aktau airport, where the crash occurred during landing.”
On the day, the nearest Russian airport, Makhachkala, was closed.
In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black. It also said that it would suspend flights between Baku and Grozny, as well as between Baku and the city of Makhachkala in Russia's North Caucasus, until its investigation into the crash has been concluded.
NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which was created back in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations to provide collective security against the Soviet Union, has called for a full investigation into the cause of the plane crash.
Taking to Twitter, NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah wrote: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and victims of Azerbaijan Airlines flight J28243.
"We wish those injured in the crash a speedy recovery and call for a full investigation."