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The Azerbaijan airplane that crashed on Wednesday was brought to the ground by a Russian air defence system, Reuters has revealed.
On Wednesday, an Embraer 190 passenger jet was travelling to Grozny in Russia from the capital of Azerbaijan when it changed course and crashed around two miles from Aktau in Kazakhstan.
When it crashed, the aircraft was attempting to land after flying east across the Caspian Sea. 38 people died in the crash and 29 others were injured.
According to Reuters, a source in Azerbaijani disclosed that the investigation results revealed that the Azerbaijani aircraft was hit by the Russian Pantsir-S air defence system, and by implication, its communications were obstructed by electronic warfare systems while approaching Grozny.
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“No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft,” Reuters said in its report, quoting an Azerbaijani source.
An anonymous US official corroborated this statement.
Azerbaijani government sources noted that a preliminary investigation found a Russian surface-to-air missile was fired at the plane during drone air activity above Grozny.
Other sources said that despite requests from the pilots for an emergency landing, the aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airport and was ordered to fly towards Aktau.
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However, the Spokesperson for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, has advised people not to speculate on the cause of the crash before investigations are concluded.
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