Putin apologises to Azerbaijani president for ‘tragic incident’ in Russian airspace

Vladimir Putin has apologised to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for what he called the “tragic incident” in which an Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft crashed on Wednesday after experiencing “external interference” over Russian airspace, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

Putin also expressed his condolences to the families of those killed in the crash and wished survivors a speedy recovery, the Kremlin added.

“During the conversation, it was acknowledged that the Azerbaijani passenger jet … repeatedly tried to land at Grozny Airport as Russian air defences were repelling attacks by Ukrainian combat drones,” the Kremlin statement continued.

Aliyev’s press service issued a statement following the telephone call confirming Baku’s contention that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane had been “subjected to external physical and technical interference in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control”.

The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 passenger jet crashed when coming into land at Aqtau Airport in southwestern Kazakhstan on 25 December, having been diverted from both Grozny and Makhachkala airports in Russia. The 38 people who died in the crash included seven Russians. There were 29 survivors.

Images of holes in the plane’s fuselage posted on social media shortly after the event caused many bloggers and journalists to suggest that it had been hit by an anti-aircraft missile. Sources in the Azerbaijani government told Euronews that the plane was shot down by a Russian ground-to-air missile attempting to repel a Ukrainian drone attack.

The Russian authorities have opened a criminal case to establish whether air traffic safety rules were violated, and have indicated that they would seek expert advice from both civilian and military specialists. Two employees of Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office are working alongside Russian investigators in Grozny, according to the Kremlin.

Under the rules set out by the Interstate Aviation Committee, which governs air travel in various former Soviet states, including Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, no official statement on the cause of a plane accident must be made for “at least 10 days”.