Azerbaijan airlines crash: Claims of Russian missile strike
General Kyrylo Budanov from Ukrainian military intelligence claims that an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer-190 was shot down over Russia, resulting in at least 38 deaths.
The Embraer-190 belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near the city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan. At least 38 people died in the crash.
"As far as we know, the plane was shot down by a Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system over Russian territory," stated Budanov in a comment for the military portal The Warzone.
The Euronews portal reported that a Russian surface-to-air missile attack might have caused the crash. Sources in the Azerbaijani government stated that the missile was launched during an air defense response to an attack by Ukrainian drones over Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.
The plane was flying from Baku to Grozny, and as a result of the crash, 38 people died, and 29 were injured.
"Reckless action by Moscow"
According to an American official quoted by the Financial Times, "there are early indications" suggesting that the Azerbaijani passenger plane that crashed on Wednesday "may have been hit by a Russian anti-aircraft system." This underscores what the official described as "reckless action by Moscow."
Most of the passengers on the Embraer-190 were Azerbaijani citizens. The flight also included 16 Russians and several citizens of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
In preliminary official reports published on the day of the crash, Wednesday, Russia reported that dense fog forced the plane to change its planned landing site in Grozny and attempt to land in Kazakhstan, where it crashed after possibly hitting a flock of birds. On the same day, the President of Azerbaijan stated he had been informed about the aircraft being redirected due to poor weather conditions.
However, this narrative was challenged by experts and officials in the U.S., as well as in the region and Ukraine. They cited evidence that Russian air defense was active at that time over Grozny in response to a Ukrainian drone attack. Additionally, they pointed to photos of the crashed plane showing what appeared to be shrapnel damage.
