Putin apologises for ‘tragic incident’ involving plane crash that killed 38 people
Vladimir Putin has addressed the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace where a commercial plane crashed, killing 38 people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to Azerbaijan’s president for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace where an Azerbaijani plane crashed in Kazakhstan and killed 38 people — but did not admit Moscow was responsible for the deaths.
The doomed Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 was heading on Wednesday from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, when it turned toward Kazakhstan.
The jet crashed and exploded in a fireball while trying to land at an airport near Aktau, the New York Post reports.
There were 29 survivors.
Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning on Thursday.
“Vladimir Putin apologised 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, adding that the call between the two leaders took place at Mr Putin’s request.
The Kremlin said Saturday that air defense systems had been firing near Grozny on Wednesday due to a Ukrainian drone strike, but did not say whether one of its weapons hit the jet.
Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan’s probe into the tragedy told Reuters Thursday Russian air defenses accidently shot down the plane, an Embraer 190.
The plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system and its communications were frozen by electronic warfare systems when approaching Grozny, one of the sources said.
On Friday, a US official and an Azerbaijani minister each blamed the crash on an external weapon.
Close-up images of the wreckage of the Embraer 190 jet showed it had been hit by various fragments or other smaller objects before it.
The fuselage and tail section had been peppered with what appeared to be hundreds of bullet holes.
The Kremlin has warned people against jumping to conclusions about the cause of the crash.
- With Post wires
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