Azerbaijani officials confirm claims Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash caused by Russian air defense system

ISTANBUL

Senior Azerbaijani officials on Thursday confirmed to Anadolu the validity of earlier media reports suggesting that an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday was caused by a Russian missile system.

This came after Azerbaijani media, citing government sources, reported that the preliminary results of the investigation into the incident determined that the plane was attacked by a Pantsir missile system as it approached the city of Grozny.

According to the report, the aircraft’s communication system was completely paralyzed due to the use of Russian electronic warfare systems, which resulted in the plane disappearing from radars while in Russian airspace.

It added that the plane only reappeared in radars while it was in the area around the Caspian Sea.

On Wednesday, an AZAL flight with 67 people on board traveling from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in the Russian Republic of Chechnya crashed about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh city of Aktau, located on the Caspian Sea coast.

According to Kazakh officials, 38 people were killed in the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft, while 29 others survived, as both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have launched investigations into the incident.

Both Azerbaijan Airlines and Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency said that preliminary findings pointed to a collision with birds as the cause of the crash.

However, footage from the crash site shows large holes in the tail of the plane, sparking speculation that it may have been brought down by an attack.

Earlier on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on media reports claiming that the plane crash was the result of an attack and urged everyone to wait until the investigation is concluded.