“The fault related to the death of Azerbaijani citizens lies with representatives of the Russian Federation,” President Aliyev’s Office issued a statement on January 6, AFP reported.
Mr. Aliyev said that Russia’s “concealment” of the cause made Azerbaijanis even more dissatisfied, coming from initial information from the Russian air transport agency that the plane had to change direction after hitting a bird. The President of Azerbaijan mentioned that Moscow only admitted that the air defense system was activated after information that the plane was “shot from the ground”.
The President of Azerbaijan said the passenger plane crashed due to being shot from the ground in Russia
Azerbaijani leaders have criticized Moscow for being involved in the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 plane, which was mistakenly shot down near the city of Grozny, capital of the Russian Chechen Republic, before diverting and crashing near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, on December 25, 2024, killing 38 people on the flight, leaving 29 survivors.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev responded to the press conference on December 29, 2024
Moscow admitted its air defenses were operating in the area at the time and said the area was being attacked by Ukrainian drones. On December 28, 2024, TASS quoted an announcement from the Kremlin press office saying Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized because the plane encountered problems while in Russian airspace. The Russian leader did not respond to the accusation that the plane was mistakenly shot down by Russian weapons.
People mourn at the funeral of the victims of the accidental shooting down of an Azerbaijani plane in December 2024.
After the plane crash, Azerbaijan announced that preliminary investigation results showed that the plane was accidentally hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile. Russia also opened its own criminal investigation, but has not announced whether Moscow agrees with Azerbaijan’s conclusions or not. The black boxes of the crashed plane have been sent to Brazil, the country that manufactured the Embraer plane that crashed, for analysis.
