Azerbaijan Airlines flight was downed by Russian air defenses, sources

Russian air defenses downed an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people, four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday.

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 came down on Wednesday near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of southern Russia in which Moscow has used air defense systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent days.

The Embraer passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.

It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian after what Russia's aviation watchdog earlier said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.

Officials did not explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash occurred after Ukrainian drone strikes this month hit Chechnya. The nearest Russian airport on the plane's flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.

One of the Azerbaijani sources familiar with the Azerbaijani investigation into the crash told Reuters that preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air refence system, and its communications were paralyzed by electronic warfare systems on the approach into 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 shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft."

Three other sources confirmed that the Azeri investigation had come to the same preliminary conclusion. Russia's Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Kazakhstan's transport prosecutor for the region where the plane came down said its investigation had not yet come to any conclusions about the crash. Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Qanat Bozymbaev said he could neither confirm nor deny the thesis that Russian air defenses downed the plane.

The Kremlin, asked before the Reuters report about the idea that the aircraft had been shot at by Russian air defenses, said that an investigation was ongoing and that it would be improper to comment until the inquiry came to its own conclusions.

"It is wrong to build hypotheses before the conclusions of the investigation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Wreckage investigated

Videos of the crash site posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed what appeared to be shrapnel damage to the wreckage of the tail section of the plane.

Aviation security firm Osprey Flight Solutions said in an alert to airlines on Wednesday that footage of the wreckage and the circumstances around the air space in southwest Russia indicated the possibility that the airliner was hit by some form of anti-aircraft fire.

Ukrainian military drones have repeatedly targeted Russia's southern regions in recent months, triggering Russian air defenses. Russia and Ukraine have been at war since Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian Defence Ministry had reported the downing of 59 Ukrainian drones over several regions.

Some were reportedly shot down in closed air space over regions bordering Ukraine, including the Sea of Azov. Flight operations were reportedly temporarily suspended at Russia’s Kazan Airport due to the activity.

In addition, publicly available ADS-B flight tracking data shows that the Azerbaijani aircraft experienced GPS jamming throughout its flight over southwest Russia, the alert said.

In Brussels, NATO called for a full investigation into the cause of the crash.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and victims of Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243," NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said on X.

"We wish those injured in the crash a speedy recovery and call for a full investigation."

Kazakhstan's senate chairman said earlier on Thursday that the cause of the plane crash was still unknown.