Azerbaijan Airlines’ (AZAL) Embraer 190 passenger plane was not shot down in Russia’s airspace on purpose, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday.
“The plane was not shot down over Russian territory on purpose,” Aliyev said in an interview with Azerbaijani TV channel Aztv.
According to sputnik, the president said that the fact that the plane’s fuselage had holes in it ruled out collision with a flock of birds as a possible cause of the air disaster. The plane’s tail section was badly damaged by what Aliyev said were shots fired from the ground.
“The truth behind what happened will be known once the black boxes are opened… The facts are that the Azerbaijani civil aircraft sustained external damage while it was flying over the Russian territory, near the city of Grozny,” Aliyev said, adding the plane was likely affected by electronic warfare systems.
The president stressed that Russia needed to punish those responsible for the crash and pay compensation to the Azerbaijani government, the victims and the plane’s crew. He confirmed that Russia had already apologized for the accident.
“We openly outlined our demands to the Russian side. On December 27, these demands were officially communicated to the Russian side. What were they? Firstly, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Secondly, it must admit its responsibility. And thirdly, the perpetrators must be brought to justice, and compensation must be paid to Azerbaijan and the injured passengers and crew members. These are our terms,” Aliyev said.
The Azerbaijani leader praised the professionalism and dedication of the pilots who crash-landed the damaged plane near Aktau.
“They were experienced enough to know they would not survive the crash-landing, but still they showed incredible valor trying to save the passengers, and it is thanks to them that there were survivors in this catastrophe,” he said.
Azerbaijan has suspended flights indefinitely to 10 Russian cities, Aliyev said, citing concerns for passengers’ safety. Russian airlines will also be barred from flying to Azerbaijan from three Russian cities.
An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 plane flying from Baku to Russia’s Grozny crashed on the morning of December 25 near the city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan. The airline said 62 passengers and five crew members were on board. Kazakhstan’s emergencies ministry said 29 people survived the crash.
According to Russian aviation authority head Dmitry Yadrov, at the time the plane was preparing to land, Ukraine was carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure of Grozny in the Chechen Republic and Vladikavkaz in the Republic of North Ossetia using unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defenses were repelling those attacks.
