An Azerbaijan Airlines flight to the southern Russian town of Mineralnie Vody turned back to Baku today after being told a chunk of airspace in southern Russia had been closed, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
An Azerbaijani Airlines flight from Baku to Russia’s Grozny crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Russia has said it’s important to wait for an investigation to finish its work to understand what happened.
Four Azerbaijani sources told Reuters on Thursday the plane had been struck by Russian air defences.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 came down near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of Russia in which Russia has used air defence systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months.
The Embraer passenger jet had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan’s Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region.
It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea after what Russia’s aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
Officials did not explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash happened after Ukrainian drone strikes this month hit Chechnya.
The nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed yesterday morning.