Azerbaijan's President Says Downed Plane Was Shot Down From Russia

AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said the passenger plane that crashed last week, killing 38 people, was damaged by gunfire from the ground in Russia, adding that some in Russia lied about the cause of the crash, Reuters reported.

President Vladimir Putin apologized to Aliyev on Saturday for the "tragic incident" in Russian airspace that occurred on Wednesday after Russian air defenses targeted Ukrainian drones.

The Kremlin statement did not say that Russia shot down the plane, only that a criminal case had been opened.

"Our plane was accidentally shot down," Aliyev told state television on Sunday, adding that the plane was under some kind of electronic jamming and then fired at as it approached the southern Russian city of Grozny.

"Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard only absurd versions from Russia," Aliyev said, citing statements in Russia that attributed the crash to birds or an exploding gas cylinder.

"We have witnessed clear attempts to cover up the matter," said the Azerbaijani leader, who has close ties to Russia and was educated at one of Moscow's top universities.

Aliyev said he wanted Russia to accept responsibility for the downing of the plane and to punish those responsible for the deadly damage.

Putin and Aliyev held another phone call on Sunday, the Kremlin said. It did not provide details, but said on Saturday that both civilian and military experts were investigating what happened.

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones had been attacking several cities.

Aliyev spoke on television as Azerbaijan honored the plane's pilots and passengers.

Captain Igor Ksnyakin and co-pilot Alexander Kalyaninov, both ethnic Russians with Azerbaijani citizenship, and Hokuma Aliyeva, a flight attendant, were given full honors at a ceremony on the Alley of Honor in central Baku attended by Aliyev and his wife Mehriban.

The pilots were praised in Azerbaijan for landing safely with 29 people alive, while they died in the crash

"The pilots were experienced and knew they would not survive this emergency landing," Aliyev said, praising them for sacrificing themselves by lowering the nose first in an attempt to save some of the passengers.

"To save the passengers, they acted with great heroism and as a result there were survivors," he said.

The Embraer passenger jet was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny, in the southern Chechnya region of Russia, before flying hundreds of kilometers over the Caspian Sea.

The Azerbaijani president's office said the pilots struggled to control the plane - desperately trying to find a place to land.