Euronews: Russian missile was the cause of the plane crash in Kazakhstan

A Russian surface-to-air missile caused the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Aktau (Kazakhstan).

Euronews was informed about this by sources in the Azerbaijani government.

According to sources, the missile was fired by Flight 8432 during drone activity over Grozny. During the flight, the missile exploded, and its fragments hit the plane.

The damaged plane was not allowed to land at any Russian airport, despite the pilotsʼ request for an emergency landing, the sources said. Instead, it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan.

The aircraftʼs GPS navigation systems were jammed throughout the flight path over the sea.

The missile was launched from the Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile system, AnewZ reported, citing Azerbaijani government sources.

The head of the Chechen Security Council, Khamzat Kadyrov, confirmed that a drone attack on Grozny had taken place on Wednesday morning, noting that there were no casualties or damage.

• The plane crash occurred in Kazakhstan on the morning of December 25. The plane, which was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Russia, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau.
• There were 67 people on board the plane, including five crew members. At least 38 of them died.