Fox News: Russia being blamed for Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed hundreds of miles off course, killing dozens

[riky]

Russia being blamed for Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed hundreds of miles off course, killing dozens

An Azerbaijan Airlines flight from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Russia crashed, hospitalizing survivors while dozens are feared dead....                        ...                        ...                            ...More than 30 passengers are dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed near the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login on Wednesday, and aviation and Ukrainian officials are placing the blame for the deadly crash on Russia, reports say.......The Embraer 190 passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia had 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced. As of Wednesday afternoon, those authorities said there were 38 dead and 29 injured survivors.......Flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. Officials did not immediately explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash came shortly after You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login hit southern Russia. Drone activity has shut down airports in the area in the past and the nearest Russian airport on the plane's flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......Aviation-security firm Osprey Flight Solutions said the flight was "likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense sytem," the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login Wednesday night......."Video of the wreckage and the circumstances around the airspace security environment in southwest Russia indicates the possibility the aircraft was hit by some form of antiaircraft fire," Matt Borie, Osprey's chief intelligence officer, said in an interview.......Ukrainian national security official Andriy Kovalenko also blamed a "Russian air-defense system" for the crash in an X post on Wednesday.......Russia's aviation watchdog, meanwhile, said it was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......Those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani citizens, according to Kazakhstani officials. ......Russian news agency Interfax reported that both pilots died in the crash, citing a preliminary assessment by emergency workers at the scene. The news agency also quoted medical workers who stated that four bodies had been recovered from the crash so far. ......The survivors have been hospitalized and include two children, the ministry told Russia's state news agency, RIA Novosti, The Associated Press reported. ......Video of the crash showed the plane descending rapidly before bursting into flames as it hit the seashore, and thick black smoke then rising, Reuters reported. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.......Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who had been traveling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan upon hearing news of the crash, the president's press service said. Aliyev was due to attend an informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet countries founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St. Petersburg.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media. ......"It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured," he wrote.......Aliyev also signed a decree declaring Dec. 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.......In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black......."We ask God for mercy on the passengers and crew members who lost their lives," a translated You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login "Their pain is our pain. We wish a speedy recovery to those injured." ......Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report....

Source: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login