Russian Investigators Vow to Punish Those Responsible for Azerbaijani Plane Crash, Baku Says

Authorities in Azerbaijan said Monday that Russian law enforcement officials promised to punish those responsible for the downing of an Azerbaijani Airlines passenger plane last week.

The AZAL Embraer 190 jet crashed in western Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 of the 67 people on board. According to preliminary findings of an Azerbaijani investigation, a Russian surface-to-air missile was fired at the plane as it tried to land at Grozny airport in the republic of Chechnya.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has demanded that Moscow take responsibility for mistakenly shooting the plane and even accused the Russian authorities of trying to cover up the cause of the crash.

Russia’s military has not confirmed that one of its missiles hit the plane. However, President Vladimir Putin told Aliyev in a phone call over the weekend that air defense systems were active early Wednesday and that he was sorry the incident happened in Russian airspace.

Azerbaijan’s General Prosecutor said Monday that the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee informed it that „intensive measures are being carried out to identify the guilty people and bring them to criminal responsibility.“

Russian law enforcement officials launched their own investigation into the crash but have not said whether they believe the Azerbaijani Airlines plane was hit by a Russian missile.

Civil aviation authorities in Russia previously said that Grozny was under attack by Ukrainian drones when the plane approached to make its landing, while also suggesting that thick fog and a flock of birds played a role in the air disaster.

Survivors of the crash described hearing explosions outside the plane, which then diverted more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) across the Caspian Sea toward the Kazakh city of Aktau.