Putin apologizes over deadly plane crash

The flight from Azerbaijan suffered an incident in Russian airspace during a Ukrainian drone raid, the Kremlin has said

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, to express condolences for a deadly plane crash this week, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

He offered an apology for the fact that such an incident “took place in Russian airspace,” adding that it occurred during a Ukrainian drone raid, which was being repelled by air defences.

“The Azerbaijani passenger plane, which arrived on schedule, made repeated attempts to land at the airport in Grozny,” the statement said. The capital of Russia’s Chechen Republic, as well as other cities in the region, “were being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones at the time, and Russian air defences were repelling those attacks.”

The Russian Investigative committee is probing the incident for possible violations of air traffic safety rules, the Kremlin said. “Civilian and military specialists” in Russia are being questioned about the events, it added.

Two representatives from the office of Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general are currently in Grozny, taking part in a joint investigation with Russian officials, the message stated.

An Embraer 190, operating as flight J2-8243 from Baku to Grozny, diverted to Kazakhstan and crashed on Wednesday, after an unsuccessful attempt to land at its destination. Azerbaijan Airlines said on Friday that “physical and technical external interference” was the likely cause of the incident, in which 38 of the 67 people on board were killed.

READ MORE: Azerbaijan airlines names ‘likely’ cause of plane crash

Azerbaijan, which lost 42 citizens in the crash, has declared national mourning for the victims. The other fatalities were Russian, Kazakh and Kyrgyz nationals. Putin “reiterated his deep and earnest condolences to the families of the people who were killed, and wished the survivors a swift recovery,” in his conversation with President Aliyev.

Officials in Chechnya reported a Ukrainian drone raid on Grozny on Wednesday, stating that all of the aircraft were shot down. On the same day, a Ukrainian drone hit a shopping mall in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz, killing a woman and causing significant damage.