Azerbaijan Airlines says the jet that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day experienced “physical and technical external interference,” according to an early investigation, amid speculation Russia’s possible involvement in the disaster.
Some 38 of the 67 people on board the plane were killed in the crash, Kazakh authorities confirmed, including two pilots and a flight attendant.
Passengers were from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and other countries, according to preliminary data from Kazakhstan’s transport ministry.
A US official told CNN on Thursday that early indications suggest a Russian anti-aircraft system may have downed the passenger jet.
Reuters also reported that the plane was downed by a Russian air defense system, citing multiple unnamed sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation.
Russia said on Friday that the passenger jet was diverted from its original destination in Grozny, Chechnya because of Ukrainian drones in the area, as well as fog.
While flight J2-8243 was trying to land in the southern Russian republic, “Ukrainian combat drones were carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, said.
The plane’s pilot attempted to land in Grozny twice, Yadrov said, but was unsuccessful. He was offered other airports to land in, the official continued, but the pilot “decided to proceed to the Aktau airport” across the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. There was also dense fog in the area of the Grozny airport, he said.
In a Friday statement, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Russian media has “lied about the cause of the crash.” It said Moscow “forced the damaged jet to cross the sea, most likely in an attempt to conceal evidence of their crime.”
