Russia has been accused of attempting to cover up a deadly missile attack on a passenger plane, which left over half of its passengers dead on Christmas day.
The plane’s GPS systems were also jammed, which has been claimed to be Russia’s doing.
Sources say that the Azerbaijan Airlines Flight just about travelled 280 miles across the Caspian Sea before it crashed and exploded near Akatu in Kazakhstan.
Video footage from inside the plane showed distressing scenes of panicked passengers making final video calls and of the 67 on board, which included children, 38 were killed.
The plane, which left Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku was flying to Grozny in Chechnya, when it was reportedly attacked by Vladimir Putin’s air defences on high alert for Ukrainian drones.
FlightRadar24 reported that the plane experienced severe GPS jamming. Flight data also revealed that the plane only began transmitting information two hours later which was just before it crashed in Kazakhstan.
Russia has already been accused of jamming systems in the region which is what led to the claims of its involvement. Images of the destroyed plane also show what looks like bullet holes.
The 29 survivors who were mainly at the rear of the plane were pulled from the crash, and some remain critically injured being treated in hospital.
It was said by flight attendant Zulfugar Asadov attempted a sea landing before the crash but then abandoned the trial.
He added: “When we hit the ground, I thought we were already dead.”
The airline initially said that the plane crashed after flying through a flock of birds but later withdrew the statement. An aviation expert supported that it was unlikely that was the case, and Azerbaijani officials then confirmed a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system was what struck Flight 8243 and caused the crash.
Richard Aboulafia, analyst at consultancy AreoDynamic Advisory, told Reuters that in a bird strike, planes usually land in the closest available field and do not travel hundreds of miles off.
Kazakhstan is set to carry out an investigation with the help of Azerbaijan but says it will not cooperate with Russia. The US has also offered to aid the investigation.
