Plane crash
\nRussian president says air defenses were repelling Ukrainian drone attacks when plane hit
\n MOSCOW
\nRussia\u2019s Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan\u2019s president for a \u201ctragic incident\u201d which happened in Russian airspace involving an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed after air defenses were used against Ukrainian drones. Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities. At least 38 people were killed.
\nFour sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan\u2019s investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot it down. \u201c(President) Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,\u201d the Kremlin said in a statement.
\n\u201cAt that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks,\u201d the Kremlin said.
\nThe Kremlin said the call took place at Putin\u2019s request. Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan\u2019s president, had noted that the plane had been \u201csubjected to external physical and technical interference in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control and redirection to the Kazakh city of Aktau,\u201d according to Azerbaijan\u2019s presidential office.
\nThe Embraer EMBR3.SA passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan\u2019s capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia\u2019s southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Plane crash Russian president says air defenses were repelling Ukrainian drone attacks when plane hit MOSCOW Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan\u2019s president for a \u201ctragic incident\u201d which happened in Russian airspace involving an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed after air defenses were used against Ukrainian drones. Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-452185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n