AZAL disaster: Putin apologized to Azerbaijan, but did not admit the guilt of Russian air defense
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev after the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Putin expressed his condolences and apologies for the tragedy that occurred on December 25, but did not admit that Russian air defense systems could have shot down the airliner.
The press service of the Kremlin stated that the head of the Russian Federation described the incident as a “tragic incident in Russian airspace.” Putin emphasized that during the accident, Russian air defense was involved due to the alleged attack of Ukrainian drones on Grozny. According to him, the Embraer ERJ-190 plane tried several times to land at the airport of the Chechen capital, but was refused due to the combat situation.
Instead, the official position of the Azerbaijani airline AZAL indicates that the cause of the disaster was “external intervention”. The Azerbaijani parliament also demanded that Russia issue an official apology for the downing of the plane. Deputy Rasim Musabekov said that the plane was hit over Grozny, and this fact cannot be hidden.
We will remind, on December 25, a passenger plane of “Azerbaijan Airlines” flew from Baku to Grozny. There were 62 passengers and five crew members on board. As a result of the accident, 38 people died. At first, the causes of the crash were called a collision with birds and an explosion of an oxygen cylinder in the cabin, but later there was evidence of shelling of the plane.
According to information, the plane tried to make an emergency landing near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, but crashed due to damage. A video showing traces of shelling on the fuselage confirmed the assumption that the plane was hit by a Russian air defense system while repelling a drone attack.
US officials said that the Embraer ERJ-190 was shot down by a Russian Panzer-S1 anti-aircraft missile system. Washington has offered to help in the investigation, which is currently being conducted by Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Flight attendant Zulfugar Asadov, one of the few survivors, said the plane was hit in poor visibility while attempting to land in Grozny. According to him, after the shelling, the crew tried to keep the plane in the air for more than an hour to find a safe place to land.
Among the dead was co-pilot Oleksandr Kalyaninov, a graduate of the Ukrainian State Aviation Academy in Kropyvnytskyi. His death became a symbol of an international tragedy that once again exacerbated tensions between Russia and its neighbors.
