Azerbaijan Airlines says the preliminary results of an investigation into the crash of its plane in Kazakhstan on 25 December have blamed “physical and technical external interference,” the BBC reports.
Thirty-eight people died when the Embraer jet came down at high speed, bursting into flames 3km short of the runway at Aktau airport.
The plane had originally tried to land at Grozny airport in southern Russia, but witnesses have spoken of an explosion before it was diverted across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan.
The head of Russia’s civil aviation agency said on Friday that the situation in the Chechen capital was “very complicated” and that a closed-skies protocol had been put in place.
“Ukrainian combat drones were launching terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” said Dmitry Yadrov, head of Rosaviatsia, in a video statement posted on Russia’s Tass news agency.
“Because of this a ‘Carpet plan’ was introduced in the area of Grozny airport, providing for the immediate departure of all aircraft from the specified area,” he said. “In addition, there was dense fog in the area of Grozny airport.”
Azerbaijan Airlines did not detail the physical and technical interference, and the government in Baku has avoided directly accusing Russia.
