Air defense was active
Putin apologizes after plane crash
Updated on December 28, 2024Reading time: 2 min.
A passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has now apologized.
After the passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the incident. The Kremlin in Moscow announced this after a telephone conversation between the two: “Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident taking place in Russian airspace,” the statement said.
The Kremlin said the plane tried to land in Grozny during attacks by Ukrainian drones. The Russian air defense was active at this time to repel these attacks.
However, Putin did not comment on whether Russian anti-aircraft missiles hit the plane, which many experts suspect. On Friday, the Kremlin declined to comment on the crash and emphasized that the results of investigations by the Azerbaijani and Kazakh authorities would have to be awaited.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday. The plane was actually supposed to fly from Baku to Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. However, it was damaged during the landing approach.
According to media reports, the government in Baku attributes the crash to fire from an anti-aircraft missile over Russia. The Internet portal “caliber.az” reported that the plane was hit by a Panzir S anti-aircraft missile while approaching Grozny.
According to “caliber.az”, the pilots asked for an emergency landing at the nearest Russian airports: Mineralnye Vody or Makhachkala. This was not approved, so the crew piloted the damaged aircraft over the Caspian Sea to Aktau in Kazakhstan.
The Embraer 190 aircraft crashed during an attempt to land there. 38 people on board were killed and there were 29 survivors. Photos of the tail section of the accident plane show damage that resembles the impact holes from metal fragments from anti-aircraft weapons. According to Kazakh information, the Embraer’s two flight recorders were found.