Reuters. Social media footage shared on Wednesday (December 25) showed holes visible in the wreckage of the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan killing at least 38.
Four sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters on Thursday (December 26) the aircraft was downed by a Russian air defense system.
Reuters was able to confirm the location and that the wreckage matches the Azerbaijani Airlines plane that crashed on Wednesday (December 25) by the color design of the plane and the positioning of the wreckage which matched corroborating footage from the scene of the crash. The date was verified by the corroborating footage, Reuters aftermath footage from the scene and the reports that the crash happened on Wednesday (December 25).
One of the Azerbaijani sources familiar with the Azerbaijani investigation into the crash told Reuters that preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defense system, and its communications were paralyzed by electronic warfare systems on the approach into Grozny.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 came down near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of Russia in which Moscow has used air defense systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months. The Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger jet had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan's Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region.
It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea after what Russia's aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike. Officials did not explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash happened after Ukrainian drone strikes this month hit Chechnya. The nearest Russian airport on the plane's flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
