The plane was damaged by fire from Russia. I expect punishment of the guilty and compensation, said the president of Azerbaijan

“The facts are that an Azerbaijani civilian plane was damaged from the outside on Russian territory near the city of Grozny and (the pilots) almost lost control,” Aliyev said, according to the agency, adding that the plane was “heavily damaged by fire from the ground.”

Aliyev also confirmed the original information that the plane was exposed to means of electronic warfare, even over Russian territory. Later, also during the flight over the Caspian Sea, when it tried to fly to the Kazakh city of Aktau.

“We also know that our plane became uncontrollable due to electronic warfare,” the agency quotes the president as saying.

The president of the Central Asian country further stated that he expects not only an apology from the Russian Federation, but also an admission of guilt, punishment of the guilty and payment of compensation to the injured passengers and the families of those who did not survive the crash, writes Trend in another report. Aliyev described these demands as “normal human behavior”.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin telephoned Aliyev on Saturday. During the call, he stated that he apologizes for the fact that the plane was damaged in Russian airspace. However, he did not admit that it was damaged by a Russian rocket. However, he claimed that at that time Grozny and other Russian cities were being attacked by Ukrainian drones.

Flight J28243, which took off from the capital of Azerbaijan Baku and headed for the Chechen city of Grozny, was heavily damaged by a Russian missile fired from the Pancir S air defense system, a source from the Azerbaijani government previously told the Euronews server.

The pilots subsequently asked Russia for the possibility of an emergency landing at one of the nearby airports, either in Makhachkala or in Miněralnye Voda. However, the Russians did not allow them to do so. According to the Azerbaijani server Caliber, the Russians did so so that the plane crashed into the water on the way across the Caspian Sea. “Where all witnesses would perish and the plane would disappear under water,” writes the server.

Caliber further stated that the plane was still exposed to electronic warfare over Russian territory. And by the Russian Federation. On the lines, it appeared again over the Caspian Sea.

There were 67 people on board the plane. A total of 29 of them survived, 38 died, including two pilots: Igor Kšnjakin and co-pilot Alexander Kaljaninov, whom the director of Azerbaijan Airlines, Samir Rzajev, described as heroes. Despite severe damage to the plane, which had disabled hydraulics, they managed to make an emergency landing just before the airport in Aktau. They landed in such a way that they saved almost half of the people.