Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized on Saturday to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani plane in Kazakhstan in which 38 people died.
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 diverted for unknown reasons that are still not entirely clear. .
It crashed while trying to reach Aktau airport in western Kazakhstan. Mobile phone footage appears to show the plane making a steep descent before hitting the ground and exploding in a fireball about 3 kilometers from Aktau airport.
The airline said 67 people were on board — 62 passengers and five crew members — and 38 people died in the crash. There were 29 survivors.
A Kremlin official said Saturday that air defense systems fired near Grozny airport when the plane made “several attempts” to land there on Wednesday. It was not explicitly indicated that any of them had hit the aircraft.
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 that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Said Russia launched a criminal investigation into the incident and Azerbaijani prosecutors 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 with Aliyev came after speculation grew that Russian air defense may have accidentally 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” and 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 US official and an Azerbaijani minister issued separate statements attributing the turn of fate to an external weapon.
A U. S. official told CBS News there were early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft missile could have hit the plane in a domain where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been exchanging drone and rocket fire for months. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that if this turned out to be true, it would further underscore Russia’s recklessness in its current 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 said the U. S. had intelligence or data that suggested that possibility, but said Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were lately leading the investigation and that the U. S. would “respect that process. “
Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises on the aircraft as it was circling over Grozny.