Russian Missiles Exploded Near Azerbaijani Plane That Crashed Last Year, Putin Admits
President Vladimir Putin told Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev on Thursday that two Russian anti-aircraft missiles had exploded several meters away from an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet that crashed last year, killing 38 people on board.
The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 jet was flying from Baku to Grozny in the republic of Chechnya on Dec. 25 when it disappeared from radar near Russia’s Caspian Sea coast before crashing later near the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Russian officials had offered conflicting explanations for the disaster, initially suggesting that poor visibility or a possible bird strike was to blame, and later saying air defense systems were targeting Ukrainian drones in the area.
In February, Kazakhstan’s Transportation Ministry published a 53-page report that referred to “external objects” striking the aircraft and included photographs showing the fuselage riddled with holes. The report said the damage caused a loss of hydraulic fluid and pressure, leading to stabilizer failure.
Russian civil aviation authorities said they were not granted full access to the wreckage. An Azerbaijani government source told Reuters at the time that international experts had identified a fragment of a Russian Pantsir-S anti-air rocket among the recovered debris.
