Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner 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.
A Kremlin official released Saturday said air defense systems fired near Grozny airport when the plane “repeatedly” tried to land there on Wednesday. It was not explicitly indicated that any of them had collided with 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 upon his return 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 “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 defenses 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 all opened investigations into the cause of the crash. The Kremlin has urged people not to jump to conclusions. Investigators have recovered both of the so-called black boxes, the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, from the crash site.
On Friday, a U. S. official and an Azerbaijani minister issued separate statements attributing the twist 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 targeted the plane in a region 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 true, it would further highlight Russia’s recklessness in its current invasion of Ukraine.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirthrough said Friday that U. S. officials “have noted initial indications that would in fact point to the option that this aircraft was shot down through 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 plane as it flew over Grozny.