MOSCOW: Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Saturday (Dec 28) apologised to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, for a “tragic incident” which occurred in Russian airspace involving an Azerbaijan Airways passenger aircraft that crashed this week.
Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fireside close to town of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia the place Ukrainian drones have been reported to be attacking a number of cities. Not less than 38 folks have been killed whereas 29 survived.
“(President) Vladimir Putin apologised for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and as soon as once more expressed his deep and honest condolences to the households of the victims and wished a speedy restoration to the injured,” the Kremlin stated in a press release.
“It was famous within the dialog that the Azerbaijani passenger plane, which was travelling based on its schedule, repeatedly tried to land at Grozny airport. At the moment, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz have been being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial automobiles, and Russian air defence techniques repelled these assaults,” the Kremlin stated.
Putin’s name with Aliyev got here after hypothesis grew that Russian air defence could have by accident shot down the aircraft.
4 sources with information of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan’s investigation into the catastrophe advised Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defences had mistakenly shot it down.
Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, had famous that the aircraft had been “subjected to exterior bodily and technical interference in Russian airspace, leading to a whole lack of management and redirection to the Kazakh metropolis of Aktau,” based on Azerbaijan’s presidential workplace.
The Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya area, earlier than veering off lots of of miles throughout the Caspian Sea.
In the course of the dialog, Putin stated his nation’s air defence was energetic because the aircraft was making an attempt to land. The Russian chief didn’t declare duty for the crash.
The Kremlin stated the pair had mentioned questions across the crash “intimately”.
It additionally stated it was “intently” cooperating with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan on the crash.
Statements by Azerbaijani officers recommend Baku believes the aircraft was hit mid-air, whereas the US has stated it had “early indications” Russian air defence could have been chargeable for the crash.
