Baku. December 29. INTERFAX - President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that the cause of the crash of the AZAL airline plane near Aktau is external damage in Russia, near the city of Grozny.
"Of course, the final version (of the AZAL plane crash) will become known after the decryption of the "black boxes". But the initial versions are also well-founded and based on facts. The facts are that the Azerbaijani civilian aircraft was damaged from the outside in Russia, near the city of Grozny, and almost lost control. We also know that our aircraft was brought into an uncontrolled state by means of electronic warfare. This is the first damage inflicted on the aircraft," Aliyev said in an interview with the state-run AzTV channel.
According to him, as a result of the fire opened from the ground, the tail section of the aircraft was severely damaged.
The President added that the fact that the fuselage of the crashed plane was full of holes completely removed the version of a collision with a flock of birds from the agenda.
The Head of State noted with regret that some circles of Russia preferred to stick to this version. "One of the things that upset and surprised us was that the Russian official structures put forward versions about the explosion of some kind of gas cylinder. That is, it openly showed that the Russian side wants to hush up the issue, and this, of course, does no one any credit," Aliyev said.
Aliev expressed confidence that the AZAL plane was not shot down on purpose. He said that admitting his guilt, timely apologizing to Azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly country, and communicating this to the public were all measures and steps that needed to be taken. "Unfortunately, for the first three days we did not hear anything from Russia except delusional versions," the head of the Azerbaijani state added.
Earlier, on December 28, the Kremlin's press service reported that, on the initiative of the Russian side, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
"Issues related to the crash of an Azerbaijani Airlines passenger plane on December 25 near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan were discussed in detail," the report said.
"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 to the injured," the Russian president's press service said.
"During the conversation, it was noted that the Azerbaijani passenger aircraft, which was following a clearly scheduled schedule, repeatedly tried to land at the airport of the city of Grozny. At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian combat unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks," the report says.
The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal case under Article 263 of the Criminal Code (violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport). Initial investigative actions are underway, civilian and military experts are being interrogated.
