He apologized to Ilham Aliyev, its president, for the “tragic incident” in Russian airspace on December 25 in the West.
Vladimir Putin apologizes to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ‘for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace,’ according to an official Kremlin statement.
— Mark Krutov (@kromark)
As Euronews had earlier reported, citing sources in the Azerbaijan government, the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Aktau last Wednesday, on Christmas Day, was caused by a Russian surface-to-air missile.
The missile was reportedly fired at Flight 8432 during drone activity over Grozny, and fragments of the missile struck passengers and cabin crew as it exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight.
The damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airport despite the pilots’ requests for an emergency landing and was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea to Aktau in Kazakhstan, government sources said.
According to reports, the plane’s GPS navigation systems were jammed all the way over the sea.
