The AZAL airline plane that crashed near Aktau airport was shot down by a Russian missile fired from the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system. This was reported by Reuters, citing a source in the Azerbaijani government, UNN reports.
Azerbaijan possesses a fragment of a Pantsir-S missile, which was recovered from the plane and identified by international experts
Addendum
An AZAL airplane en route from Baku to Grozny crashed near Aktau airport. After the control systems failed, the crew made an emergency landing, as a result of which the front part of the plane collapsed.
According to Flightradar24, the Azerbaijan Airlines plane was flying over the area where the drone strikes were taking place before the crash. The distress call was made between 8:23 and 8:25 a.m., when the plane was over Grozny.
The White House has information about the possible involvement of Russian air defense in the downing of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan. The airline suspends flights to 10 Russian cities due to "external interference" in the crash.
Later, during a telephone conversation, Putin apologized to the Azerbaijani president for the downing of the Azal plane near Aktau. The plane was trying to land in Grozny when it was attacked by Ukrainian drones.
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov , notedthat Azerbaijan Airlines flight JS-8432 crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday as a result of a Russian short-range air defense system Pantsyr-S1.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at a meeting with family members of the crew and flight attendants of the surviving Azerbaijan Airlines plane saidthat the blame for the crash lies with representatives of the Russian Federation and demanded that the perpetrators be punished.