Putin apologizes to the Azerbaijani President for the “tragic incident” related to the plane crash in Kazakhstan

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized on Saturday to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he described as a “tragic incident” that followed the attack. An Azerbaijani passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people.

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, an Embraer 190, was flying from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to the city of Grozny in Russia’s North Caucasus region on Wednesday when its course was diverted for reasons that are not yet completely clear.

The plane crashed while trying to reach another airport in Aktau, western Kazakhstan. Mobile phone footage appears to show the plane making a hard landing before hitting the ground and exploding in a fireball two miles from Aktau Airport.

The airline said 67 people were on board – 62 passengers and five crew members – and that 38 people died in the crash. There were 29 survivors.

Putin’s call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev came after growing speculation that Russian air defenses may have shot down the plane by mistake.

In an official statement on Saturday, the Kremlin said that air defense systems opened fire near Grozny on Wednesday due to a Ukrainian drone airstrike, but stopped short of saying that one of them hit the plane.

“(President) Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery for the injured,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Kremlin said the call took place at Putin’s request.

Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia opened investigations into the cause of the accident. The Kremlin urged People should not jump to conclusions. Investigators recovered the black boxes, flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the crash site.

On Friday, a US official and an Azerbaijani minister made separate statements blaming the incident on a foreign weapon.

A US official told CBS News there were early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft system may have hit the plane in an area where Ukrainian and Russian forces have been exchanging missile and drone fires for months. If that proves true, it would further underscore Russia’s recklessness in its ongoing campaign, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Invasion of Ukraine.

John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Friday that US officials “saw some early indications that this plane was certainly shot down by Russian air defense systems.”

He assured reporters that the United States has intelligence or information indicating this possibility, but said that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are currently conducting the investigation and that the United States “will respect this process.”

Passengers and crew members who survived the accident told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises on board the plane as it was flying over Grozny.