The Kremlin is refusing to touch upon hypothesis Russian air defence might have unintentionally prompted an Azerbaijan airliner crash which killed 38 individuals yesterday.

The airplane was travelling in a north-west course, from Azerbaijan’s Baku to Grozny, within the Chechen republic of Russia, when it veered off track and headed eastwards throughout the Caspian Sea earlier than crashing in Kazakhstan, close to Aktau.

There have been 29 survivors amongst all of the Azerbaijanis, Russians, Kazakhs and other people from Kyrgyzstan on board.

Russia’s aviation watchdog initially mentioned the incident occurred after a collision with birds.

Nevertheless, there are doubts over this official rationalization as a problem with birds normally triggers an instantaneous touchdown.

This airplane continued to fly off-course for a whole bunch of miles after it encountered an issue mid-flight.

Pictures of the wreckage seem to point out holes within the airplane just like shrapnel or bullet marks.

Navy analysts speculated that this might have been attributable to Moscow’s air defence missiles, particularly as 50 Ukrainian drones hit southern Russia shortly earlier than the airplane crashed.

However, based on Russian state information company TASS, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, advised reporters: “Presently an investigation is in progress. Any air incident ought to be investigated by specialised aviation authorities.

“It’s obligatory to attend for the tip of this probe.”

“It might be improper to construct any hypotheses earlier than the panel of inquiry presents its conclusions. In fact, we can’t try this. Nobody ought to do it,” he added.

Equally, Azerbaijan president and Putin ally Ilham Aliyev mentioned it was too quickly to take a position over the trigger however urged unhealthy climate might have pressured the airliner to change its course.

He mentioned Thursday could be a day of mourning, including: “It is a nice tragedy, that has develop into an incredible sorrow for the Azerbaijani individuals.”

Their remarks come after a pro-Kremlin army blogger, Yuriy Podolyaka, mentioned the injury to the airplane appeared constant “with an air defence missile, detonating from the facet and above”.

He wrote on the social media platform Telegram: “Survivors recall a ‘bang’ throughout its third foggy touchdown try in Grozny earlier than redirection to Makhachala.

“It could have been caught in a defence response to an assault on Grozny.”

Equally, aviation safety agency Osprey Flight Options speculated that it was “probably” shot down by Russian army air-defence system, as did a Ukrainian nationwide safety official Andriy Kovalenko in a put up on X.

Kovalenko wrote: “An Embraer 190 plane of an Azerbaijani airline, flying from Baku to Grozny, was shot down by a Russian air defence system.

“Nevertheless, admitting that is inconvenient for everybody, so efforts will probably be made to cowl it up, even the holes within the remaining elements of the plane.

There’s additionally video footage from contained in the airplane through the flight, exhibiting punctured life vests and different injury.

“Russia ought to have closed the airspace over Grozny however failed to take action. The airplane was broken by the Russians and was despatched to Kazakhstan as a substitute of being urgently landed in Grozny to save lots of lives. In a single phrase – Russia.”