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‘Tragic incident’: Vladimir Putin apologises to Azerbaijan leader for plane crash
Vladimir Putin told his counterpart that the plane tried to land at the Grozny airport which was under attack by Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, over the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane this week. At least 38 people were killed in the crash while 29 survived.
The Kremlin said in a statement that Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident. It further said that Putin told his counterpart that the plane tried to land at the Grozny airport which was under attack by Ukraine.
"(President) Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured," the Kremlin said in a statement.
“It was noted in the conversation that the Azerbaijani passenger aircraft, which was travelling according to its schedule, repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport. At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks,” it added.
Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities.
Several airlines have announced the suspension of flights to Russian cities after Western experts and the US suggested the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines this week may have been caused by a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
Moscow has declined to comment on reports the plane could have been accidentally shot down by its air defence.
Turkmenistan Airlines – the national carrier of the reclusive Central Asian state – was the latest airline to announce cancellations on Saturday.
It said that "regular flights between Ashgabat-Moscow-Ashgabat were cancelled from 30/12/2024 to 31/01/2025," without providing an explanation.
The decision came after UAE airline Flydubai suspended flights between Dubai and the southern Russian cities of Mineralnye Vody and Sochi that were scheduled between December 27 and January 3.
The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 crashed near the western Kazakh city of Aktau, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. It was carrying out a flight between Azerbaijan's capital Baku and the city of Grozny in Russia.
With inputs from AFP, AP
