Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart on Saturday for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani plane in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people.
Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 8243, an Embraer 190 aircraft, was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Russia’s North Caucasus region on Wednesday when it was hijacked for reasons that remain unclear.
It crashed while trying to reach another airport in Aktau, in western Kazakhstan. Cellphone footage appears to show the aircraft making a steep descent before hitting the ground and exploding in a fireball about two miles from the Aktau airport.
The airline said there were 67 other people on board (62 passengers and five crew members) and that 38 other people died in the crash. There were 29 survivors.
An official Kremlin statement issued Saturday said that air defense systems were firing near Grozny airport as the airliner “repeatedly” attempted to land there on Wednesday. It did not explicitly say one of these hit the plane.
Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace. “
“(President) Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident in Russian airspace and once back expressed his deep and honest condolences to the families of those affected and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” he said. the Kremlin said in a statement.
He said Russia has launched a criminal investigation into the incident and that Azerbaijani prosecutors have arrived in Grozny to participate. The Kremlin also said that “relevant services” from Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were jointly investigating the crash site near the city of Aktau. in Kazakhstan.
Putin’s call to Aliyev came after speculation grew that Russian air defense may have shot down the plane.
The Kremlin took a position on the call at Putin’s request.
According to a readout of the call provided through Aliyev’s press office, the Azerbaijani president told Putin that the plane was subject to “external physical and technical interference” but did not blame Russian air defense.
Aliyev noted that the plane had several holes in the fuselage and that the occupants were injured “due to foreign debris that entered the cabin in mid-flight. “
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia have opened an investigation into the reasons for the accident. The Kremlin suggested to others not to jump to conclusions. Investigators recovered the two black boxes, flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the crash site.
On Friday, a U. S. official and an Azerbaijani minister made separate statements attributing the accident to a weapon.
A U.S. official told CBS News there were early indications a Russian anti-aircraft system may have struck the plane in a region where Ukrainian and Russian forces have traded drone and rocket fire for months. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said if that proved to be true, it would further underscore Russia’s recklessness in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that U.S. officials “have seen some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems.”
He confirmed to reporters that the U.S. has intelligence or information pointing to the possibility, but said Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are currently conducting the investigation and the U.S. will “respect that process.”
Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises on the plane as it flew over Grozny.