Azerbaijan\u2019s president accuses Russia of downing airliner in Christmas Day crash and covering up cause
\nAzerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev has accused Russia of accidentally downing an airliner on Christmas Day in a disaster that killed 38 people, and covering up the cause.
\nThe Azerbaijan Airlines plane was traveling to Grozny in Chechnya before it made an emergency landing near Aktau, the airline said on Wednesday.
\nRussia\u2019s Federal Air Transport Agency first said the plane crashed after colliding with birds, though it later said Ukrainian combat drones and dense fog forced the plane out of Russian airspace.
\nPerforations in the plane\u2019s body that look similar to damage from shrapnel or debris led many to believe the plane was shot down by Russian air defense units, including a US official who told CNN that signs pointed to a Russian system striking the plane.
\n\u201cThe fact that the fuselage is riddled with holes indicates that the theory of the plane hitting a flock of birds\u2026 is completely removed from the agenda,\u201d Aliyev said Sunday, according to Azerbaijan state media AZERTAC.
\nThe Azerbaijani President said the plane was damaged over Russian territory, adding that \u201celectronic warfare systems put our plane out of control,\u201d AZERTAC reported.
\n\u201cAt the same time, as a result of fire from the ground, the tail of the plane was also severely damaged,\u201d Aliyev continued.
\nA Russian dispatcher said shortly before the crash that an oxygen tank exploded in the plane\u2019s cabin, Kazakhstan\u2019s Transport Minister Marat Karabayev said on Thursday.
\nEmergency workers at the crash site of the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan.
\nAliyev said this was \u201canother regrettable and surprising moment\u201d that \u201cclearly showed that the Russian side wanted to cover up the issue, which, of course, is unbecoming of anyone,\u201d AZERTAC reported.
\nOn Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin \u201capologized for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace\u201d in a phone call with Aliyev, adding that Russian air defenses were active at the time but stopped short of admitting fault.
\nRussian state media TASS reported that Putin and Aliyev had another call on Sunday, but did not offer any more information on the conversation.
\nAliyev said Sunday that instead of making up theories about the reason for the crash, Russia should instead take the blame and apologize fully.
\n\u201cOf course, our plane was hit by accident\u2026 there can be no talk of a deliberate act of terror here,\u201d he said, according to AZERTAC.
\n\u201cTherefore, admitting the guilt, apologizing in a timely manner to Azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly country, and informing the public about this \u2013 all these were measures and steps that should have been taken,\u201d he continued.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, for the first three days, we heard nothing from Russia except for some absurd theories,\u201d Aliyev said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Azerbaijan\u2019s president accuses Russia of downing airliner in Christmas Day crash and covering up cause Azerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev has accused Russia of accidentally downing an airliner on Christmas Day in a disaster that killed 38 people, and covering up the cause. The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was traveling to Grozny in Chechnya before it made …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":74906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74917,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74901\/revisions\/74917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}