The Azerbaijani President said on Sunday that this passenger plane It crashed last week, killing 38 peopleUnintentionally shot down by the Russian army. He also accused Russia of trying to “cover up” the issue for several days.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told state television on Sunday that Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 was “shot down by accident.”
He said, “We can say very clearly that Russia shot down the plane. (…) We are not saying that it happened intentionally, but it happened.”
Miramgül Kusinova/Anadolu via Getty Images
He added that the plane was subjected to a kind of electrical disturbance and was shot at as it approached the city of Grozny in southern Russia.
Aliyev accused Russia of trying to “cover up” the issue for several days, saying he was “disturbed and surprised” by that. Versions of events put forward by Russian officials.
Aliyev said: “Unfortunately, in the first three days we only heard ridiculous stories from Russia,” citing statements issued in Russia that attributed the incident to birds or a gas cylinder explosion.
The Azerbaijani leader, who has close ties to Russia, said: “We have witnessed clear attempts to cover up the matter.”
Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo via AP
The Azerbaijani plane was on its way from the capital, Bago, to Grozny on Wednesday when it deviated from its course. The plane crashed while trying to reach another airport in Aktau, western Kazakhstan.
Mobile phone footage appears to show the plane making a hard landing before hitting the ground and exploding in a fireball two miles from Aktau Airport.
The airline said 67 people were on board – 62 passengers and five crew members – and that 38 people died in the crash. There were 29 survivors.
Aliyev said that Azerbaijan made three demands to Russia regarding the incident.
“First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Second, it must admit its guilt. Third, punish the guilty parties and bring them to criminal liability and pay compensation to the Azerbaijani state, injured passengers and crew members,” he said.
Aliyev noted that the first request was “already fulfilled” when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin He apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart Due to the “tragic accident that occurred on Wednesday in Russian airspace.”
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The Kremlin said that air defense systems opened fire near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, where the plane attempted to land, to avoid a Ukrainian drone strike.
The Kremlin statement did not say that Russia shot down the plane, but only indicated that it had begun a criminal investigation into the incident.
Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan had always “supported the presence of a group of international experts” to investigate the accident, and had “categorically rejected” Russia’s proposal that the Interstate Aviation Committee, which oversees civil aviation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, investigate the accident.
“It is no secret that this organization consists mostly of Russian officials and is headed by Russian citizens. Objectivity factors cannot be fully guaranteed here,” Aliyev said.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday that U.S. officials “saw some early indications that this aircraft could certainly be shot down by Russian air defense systems.”
He stressed that the United States has intelligence or information indicating this possibility, but said that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are currently conducting the investigation and that the United States “will respect this process.”
Passengers and crew members who survived the accident told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises on board the plane as it was flying over Grozny.
