The Russian government has warned against promoting “hypotheses” on the causes of the crash of a passenger plane bound for Russia that resulted in the deaths of 38 people in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
According to a BBC report, citing some aviation experts, the Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft may have been struck by air defence systems over the Russian republic of Chechnya, with Azerbaijani state media quoting officials claiming a Russian missile was to blame.
Before it went down near the Kazakh city of Aktau, the plane was rerouted over the Caspian Sea from its original destination in Chechnya to western Kazakhstan, added the report.
Of the 67 people on board, 29 survived. Azerbaijan observed a national day of mourning on Thursday for the victims of the crash.
“This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people,” BBC quoted President Ilham Aliyev as saying on Thursday.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “it would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses before the investigation’s conclusions”.
“We, of course, will not do this, and no-one should do this. We need to wait until the investigation is completed,” BBC quoted Peskov as saying.
On Wednesday morning, the Embraer 190 took off from Baku bound for Grozny in Chechnya. However, it was diverted due to fog, according to the airline.
A surviving passenger reported that the pilot attempted to land twice in the dense fog over Grozny before an explosion occurred on the third attempt, causing part of the aircraft’s skin to blow out.
Content retrieved from: https://www.firstpost.com/world/wrong-to-put-forward-any-hypotheses-russia-responds-to-air-defence-allegations-in-azerbaijan-plane-crash-13847809.html.
