Four sources say Azerbaijan Air Force flight shot down by Russian air defenses

• The results show that the plane was hit by the Pantsir-S air defense system.
• Source says “No one is claiming it was on purpose.”
• Wrong to build case before investigation is complete, Kremlin says

BAKU: Russian air defenses shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people, four sources familiar with the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan’s investigation into the disaster said. Reuters on Thursday.

Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a fireball near the Kazakh city of Aktau after diverting from an area of ​​southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defense systems against Ukrainian drone strikes.

The Embraer passenger jet EMBR3.SA had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny in Russia’s southern Chechnya region before diverting hundreds of miles into the Caspian Sea.

It crashed on the opposite bank of the Caspian after what the Russian air force earlier said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.

Officials did not explain why he had crossed the sea. The closest Russian airport to the plane’s flight path, Makhachkala, was closed on Wednesday morning.

One of the Azerbaijani sources familiar with the Azerbaijani investigation into the crash said Reuters that preliminary results showed the plane was hit by a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system. His communications were crippled by electronic warfare systems on approach to Grozny, the source said.

“No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the downing of the Azerbaijani aircraft,” the source said.

Three other sources confirmed that the Azeri investigation had reached the same preliminary conclusion. The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Qanat Bozymbaev said he could neither confirm nor deny the position that Russian air defense shot down the plane.

Asked about the possibility that Russian air defenses shot down the plane, Kazakhstan’s transport prosecutor for the region where the plane ended up said the investigation has yet to come to a clear conclusion.

The Kremlin, he asked before the Reuters report on the idea that the plane had been shot down by Russian air defenses, said the investigation was ongoing and that it would not be appropriate to comment until the investigation reaches its own conclusions.

“It is wrong to make assumptions before the conclusions of the investigation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.