Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev had issued a rare forthright condemnation of Moscow — a close partner of Baku — on Sunday (December 29, 2024). File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Azerbaijan said on Monday (December 30, 2024) that Moscow had promised to punish those responsible for the downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that Baku says was shot at by Russian air defences.

The AZAL Embraer 190 jet crash-landed in Kazakhstan on December 25, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has demanded that Moscow accept responsibility for mistakenly firing on the plane as it tried to make a scheduled landing at Grozny airport in south Russia.

Russia has not confirmed that one of its air-defence missiles hit the plane, though President Vladimir Putin told Mr. Aliyev in a phone call over the weekend that the systems were active at the time and that he was sorry the incident took place in Russian airspace.

Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general reported on Monday (December 30, 2024) that the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee had told Baku: “Intensive measures are being carried out to identify the guilty people and bring them to criminal responsibility.”

Russia has opened a criminal enquiry into the incident.

But it has not said whether it agrees that the plane was hit by one of its air-defence missiles and has not itself said anything about finding or bringing any perpetrators to justice.

Mr. Aliyev had issued a rare forthright condemnation of Moscow — a close partner of Baku — on Sunday (December 29, 2024).

He said the plane was “hit by accident” but was angry that Russia had apparently tried to hide the cause of the crash.

Demanding that Mr. Putin admit responsibility, Mr. Aliyev also accused Russia of putting forward alternative theories that “clearly showed the Russian side wanted to cover up the issue”.

Russia said Grozny, in the southern Russian region of Chechnya, was being attacked by Ukrainian drones when the AZAL airliner approached to make its landing through thick fog.

Survivors have described hearing explosions outside the plane, which then diverted more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) across the Caspian Sea towards the Kazakh city of Aktau, where it crash-landed.

Kazakhstan said on Monday (December 30, 2024) it had sent the plane’s black boxes to Brazil, where they will be analysed by the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center, a unit of the Brazilian air force.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said the Azerbaijan Airlines jet that crashed this week was shot at from Russia and called for Moscow to admit “guilt” in the disaster. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday (December 29, 202) said the Azerbaijan Airlines jet that crashed this week was shot at from Russia and called for Moscow to admit “guilt” in the disaster.

He said the jet which crashed this week, killing 38 of the 67 people onboard, was hit “by accident” by Russia.

On Saturday (December 28, 2024), Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised for the crash but stopped short of accepting that it might have been hit by Russian fire.

“The facts are that the Azerbaijani civilian plane was damaged from the outside over Russian territory, near the city of Grozny, and almost lost control,” Mr. Aliyev said in televised comments, according to state news agency, Azertag.

“We also know that electronic warfare systems put our plane out of control,” he said, adding that “at the same time, as a result of fire from the ground, the tail of the plane was also severely damaged.”

He said Baku regretted that Moscow “put forward theories” that “clearly showed the Russian side wanted to cover” up the issue.

“Of course, our plane was hit by accident. Of course, there can be no talk of a deliberate act of terror here,” Mr. Aliyev said.

“Therefore, admitting the guilt, apologizing in a timely manner to Azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly country, and informing the public about this – all these were measures and steps that should have been taken,” he said.

Moscow had earlier said that Grozny, where the plane was due to land but instead crashed in western Kazakhstan, was attacked by Ukrainian drones that day.

Speculation has swirled for days that Russia accidentally shot down the plane, with the United States weighing in Friday (December 27. 2024) saying it had “early indications” the plane was shot.