An Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people, was shot down by a Russian air defense system, Reuters reported Thursday.
The report cited four sources in Azerbaijan familiar with the investigation into the crash. One of the sources said preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system, and its communications were paralyzed by electronic warfare systems on the approach into Grozny, Reuters reported.
“No one claims that it was done on purpose,” the source told Reuters. “However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft.”
Officials in Russia and Kazakhstan have remained tight-lipped after the Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau with dozens of souls aboard.
A Ukrainian national security official has blamed Russian air defense fire for the deadly crash, which killed 38 people on Christmas Day.
The Embraer 190 passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia had 62 passengers and five crew on board, according to Kazakh authorities. It had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. Twenty-nine