Putin apologizes to Azerbaijani leader for ‘tragic incident’ involving plane crash that killed 38 people

By: Matthew S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized 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.

There were 29 survivors.

Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning on Thursday.

“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, adding that the call between the two leads took place at 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 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 U.S. 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 hundreds of holes, including some large enough to fit a person, and others resembling bullet holes.

A Russian flight watchdog agency previously said the plane’s diversion and emergency landing was due to a bird strike.

In addition to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia have also opened probes into the cause of the crash, CBS reported.

The Kremlin has warned people against jumping to conclusions about the cause of the crash.