Russian missile is likely cause of Azeri passenger aircraft crash

A Russian surface-to-air missile is likely to have caused an Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft to crash on Wednesday morning, according to media reports.

Azerbaijani government sources confirmed to Euronews that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the aircraft to crash in Aktau.

It appears that the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan was brought down by “something very similar to an anti-aircraft missile”, according to a Russian military expert.

Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8432 took off from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday morning bound for Grozny in Chechnya.

“The plane was damaged by something very similar to an anti-aircraft missile. And it is really very, very difficult to assume anything else without some serious evidence," military expert, Yan Matveyev told Euronews.

According to the Azeri sources, the missile was fired at the plane during drone air activity above Grozny and the shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew as it exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight.

Matveyev confirmed that Ukrainian drones were flying over Chechnya at the time the airliner went down and that it was possible it had been hit by Russia's air defences.

Azeri government sources told Euronews that the damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite requests for an emergency landing from the pilots and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan.

The pilots then had to crash land the aircraft just before it reached the airport. Officials said that 38 of the 67 passengers on board the Embraer 190 aircraft died, including the pilots and some crew members.

According to Azerbaijan Airlines, 37 passengers were Azerbaijani citizens. There were also 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani citizens.