The plane that crashed off the coast of the Caspian Sea was gunned down by Russia, according to four Reuters sources.
At least 38 of the 67 passengers onboard the Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft died while en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, capital of the Chechnya region in southern Russia.
A view of the crash site where an Azerbaijan Airlines flight with 67 people on board, traveling from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in Russia's Chechnya region, crashed near the Kazakh Caspian city of Aktau on December 25, 2024 the Kazakh Emergency Ministry said, adding that there were 25 survivors (Emergency Situations of Kazakhstan/Anadolu via Getty Images)
However it would sadly fail to make it to its destination and crashed on Wednesday morning (December 25).
According to Kazakh officials, the people on board were citizens of four different countries, 42 Azerbaijani citizens,16 Russian citizens, 6 Kazakh citizens, 3 Kyrgyz citizens.
Now, the news agency Reuters has reported that it spoke with 'four sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation' and were told that the planed 'was downed by a Russian air defence system'.
The Embraer 190 passenger jet was allegedly shot down after it diverted from 'an area of Russia in which Moscow has used air defence systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months', the agency writes.
However, Russia’s aviation watchdog said that the plane suffered a bird strike which resulted in an emergency situation on the aircraft, and it was also reported that it had to divert from its original route due to heavy fog and was intending to make an emergency landing.
President Aliyev also said: “According to the information provided to me, the AZAL airline plane, flying on the Baku-Grozny route, changed its course due to worsening weather conditions and began heading toward Aktau airport, where the crash occurred during landing.”
The nearest Russian airport, Makhachkala, was closed earlier in the day due to drone activity.
In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black. It also said that it would suspend flights between Baku and Grozny, as well as between Baku and the city of Makhachkala in Russia's North Caucasus, until its investigation into the crash has been concluded.
More to follow.
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