Putin apologises over ‘tragic incident’ with Azerbaijan plane in Russian airspace

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Objects smashed through plane’s fuselage

Azerbaijan for its part said Aliyev had noted to Putin that the plane had been “subjected to external physical and technical interference in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control and redirection to the Kazakh city of Aktau”.

Until Saturday, Russia’s last working day before a long New Year holiday, the Kremlin had said it was improper to comment on the incident before official investigations were concluded.

The crash landing of the Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 on the ground near the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan.Credit: AP

The Embraer jet had flown from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region, where the incident occurred, and then travelled, badly damaged, another 450 kilometres across the Caspian Sea.

Footage shot by passengers before the plane crashed showed oxygen masks down and people wearing life jackets. Later videos showed bloodied and bruised passengers climbing out of the wreckage. There were 29 survivors.

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Baku cited injuries from objects that had penetrated the aircraft’s fuselage from outside and testimonies from survivors as evidence of “external physical and technical interference”.

The crash underscored the risks to civil aviation even when aircraft are flying hundreds of miles from a war zone, especially when Ukraine has deployed drones en masse to try to hit back at Russia behind the front lines .

Russia uses electronic jamming to confuse the geolocation and communication systems of Ukrainian drones, which it also targets with air defence systems.

In 2020, Iranian Revolutionary Guards mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 on board.

And in 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, with the loss of 298 passengers and crew, by what Dutch investigators said was a Russian BUK missile system. Russia denied involvement.

Reuters

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