The Azerbaijani government blames Russia and its anti-aircraft defense system for the crash of this plane which left 38 dead.
The airline Azerbaijan Airlines announced this Friday that it was suspending its flights to seven Russian cities, particularly in the Caucasus, after the crash in Kazakhstan of its plane which was flying from Baku to the Russian Caucasian republic of Chechnya.
This decision was taken “taking into account the preliminary results of the investigation into the Embraer 190 crash”, which left 38 dead, and “the risks to flight safety”, explained Azerbaijan Airlines, while specifying that it would continue to operate flights to Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Russia does not comment
Moscow is incriminated by numerous publications, in particular because of a possible Russian anti-aircraft missile. The Kremlin now believes that it does not want to make any comments before the end of the investigation.
“An investigation is underway. We believe that we have no right to comment before the conclusions of the investigation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 plane with 67 people on board crashed and caught fire in unclear circumstances near Aktau, a Caspian Sea port in western Kazakhstan and far from its destination , killing 38 people, according to the authorities of this Central Asian country.
“An investigation is underway to establish whether it was a Russian air defense strike or another cause,” declared Azerbaijani MP Rassim Moussabekov, while emphasizing that “we see in the photos and videos the fuselage of the plane with holes which are normally caused by anti-aircraft missiles”.
The trail of a Russian air defense missile is favored to explain this crash, an American official and media cited Azerbaijani sources said earlier.
None of the countries involved have yet publicly confirmed this version, fueled by images of impacts on the wreckage of the aircraft, and according to which the aircraft was shot during its approach to the airport of destination in Russia, before managing to fly to Kazakhstan where it crashed.
