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Russia says crashed Azerbaijan Airlines flight was diverted due to ‘Ukrainian drone attack’
Rosaviatsia, the Russian aviation watchdog, said that the plane's captain had been offered other airports to land at but chose Kazakhstan’s Aktau.
Russia’s aviation chief said on Friday that a “Ukrainian drone attack” was taking place in the Chechnya region at the time an Azerbaijani airliner attempted to land before diverting to Kazakhstan and crashing on Wednesday, Associated Press reported.
Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, did not address comments from an Azerbaijani lawmaker and various aviation experts who attributed the crash to Russian air defence fire.
Rosaviatsia, the Russian aviation watchdog, said that the plane's captain had been offered other airports to land at but chose Kazakhstan’s Aktau. According to Reuters, the agency also stated that it would provide full support to Kazakh and Azerbaijani investigations into the crash.
Russia emphasised the importance of waiting for the investigation to be completed to fully understand the cause of the incident.
Earlier on Thursday, four Azerbaijani sources told Reuters that the plane had been hit by Russian air defences.
Azerbaijan plane crash
Flight J2-8243 crashed in an explosion near Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, after diverting from an area in southern Russia where Moscow has been using air defence systems against Ukrainian drones. The crash resulted in at least 38 deaths, while 29 passengers survived.
Authorities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia have refrained from commenting on the potential cause of the crash, awaiting the results of an official investigation. However, Rasim Musabekov, a member of Azerbaijan's parliament, told the Azerbaijani news agency Turan on Thursday that the plane was fired upon while flying over Grozny and called on Russia to issue an official apology.
Two passengers from the Azerbaijan Airlines flight, which was en route to Grozny in southern Russia, told Reuters that they heard a loud bang as the plane approached its original destination.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the crash, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying, "until the conclusions of the investigation, we do not consider we have the right to make any comments and we will not do so."
Some aviation and military experts have suggested that the wreckage showed signs of shrapnel damage, indicating the plane may have been hit by air defence fire. Azerbaijan's pro-government website, Caliber, and other media outlets reported that unnamed Azerbaijani officials believe a Russian missile fired from a Pantsir-S air defence system may have caused the crash.
Ukraine's presidency has stated that Russia "must be held responsible for the downing" of the plane.
With inputs from agencies
