The civilian airliner was flying on Wednesday from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in Russia’s Chechen Republic. After passengers reported hearing a blast, the plane diverted hundreds of kilometers from its route and crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. There were 29 survivors.
The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal probe into the crash, the Kremlin said.
Several media reports, including by Reuters, Russian independent news outlet Meduza, and Azerbaijan’s Caliber news agency, claim the passenger jet was damaged by a Russian air defense missile in an area where Moscow has been targeting Ukrainian drones in recent weeks.
If it is confirmed that the plane was downed by Russia, the incident will echo the Malaysia Airlines disaster of 2014 in which a plane flying over the Donbas region of Ukraine was shot down by a Russian missile, killing all 298 people on board. A Dutch court found two Russian agents and a separatist leader guilty of the crime in absentia.
Gabriel Gavin contributed to this report.
This article is being updated.
