In a Sunday TV interview, the Azerbaijani President clearly stated that the Azerbaijan Airlines civilian plane - which crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday - was previously fired upon from Russian territory. President Aliyev noted that the final causes of the crash will become clear after examining the black boxes. However, he emphasized that the preliminary theories are well-based upon established facts.
"The facts are that the Azerbaijani civilian plane was damaged from outside over Russian territory, near the city of Grozny, and the pilots almost completely lost control of it. We also know that the plane was subjected to the action of devices used for conducting electronic warfare. At the same time, as a result of ground fire, the rear of the plane was damaged"
- Azerbaijan's President said.
On Saturday, Vladimir Putin apologized to the president of Azerbaijan for the plane crash. However, the Russian dictator did not directly admit that the Azerbaijani plane was fired upon by Russian air defense, and called the event a "tragic incident."
An Azerbaijani Embraer 190 passenger plane crashed trying to land in Kazakhstan on December 25, after sustaining damage while flying over Russia's Grozny, and being redirected to a distant Kazakh airport by the Russians. 38 out of the 67 people on board lost their lives.
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Source: IAR, PAP