Today at 10:31
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that the crashed Azerbaijan Airlines plane was fired upon from the ground.
“The facts are that the civilian aircraft was damaged from outside on Russian territory, near the city of Grozny, and practically lost control. We also know that our plane was rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare. This is the first damage inflicted on the plane,” he said in an interview with Azerbaijani television.
Russia put forward versions about an explosion of some gas cylinder in the plane. This showed that their side wanted to cover up the issue, — Aliyev stated.
“To admit their guilt, to apologize to Azerbaijan in a timely manner — these were the actions and steps that needed to be taken. Unfortunately, for the first three days, we heard nothing from Russia except for nonsensical versions,” — added the President of Azerbaijan.
Aliyev added that the tail section of the plane was severely damaged by gunfire from the ground.
He noted that the final version will be known after the black boxes are opened and that the plane was not fired upon intentionally.
On December 28, Vladimir Putin called Ilham Aliyev and apologized for the fact that the “incident” with the Azerbaijani plane occurred in Russian airspace.
On December 25, an Embraer 190 aircraft of Azerbaijan Airlines, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed in Aktau. The crash killed 38 passengers, 29 survived.
The plane was unable to land at Grozny airport. At that moment, the city was attacked by Ukrainian drones. The “Carpet” regime was introduced in the area of Grozny airport. The aircraft was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea in the direction of Aktau.
Reuters and Euronews, citing sources in the Azerbaijani government, wrote that the plane was shot down by a Russian air defense system. A preliminary investigation by Azerbaijan Airlines showed that the crashed plane crashed due to “physical and technical external interference.”
Read also: Zelenskyy extends condolences to South Korea over plane crash
