Russia must admit guilt for downing Azerbaijani plane - President Aliyev
As Ukrinform reports with reference to AZERTAG, this was stated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in an interview with Azerbaijani television.
"Of course, the final version will become known after the black boxes are opened. But the initial versions are also quite substantiated and based on facts. And these facts are that the Azerbaijani civil plane was damaged from the outside, on the territory of Russia, near the city of Grozny, practically becoming uncontrollable. We also know that our plane was rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare. This is the initial damage inflicted on the jet," Aliyev said.
As reported by AZERTAG, "the president also said that the tail part of the plane was also badly damaged as a result of the strike executed from the ground."
"I repeat, after the black boxes are opened and once we receive more detailed information, all the details will emerge and many issues that still raise questions today will become clear. For example, why was the plane unable to land in the city of Grozny? To what extent did electronic warfare affect the controls? How effective were the effects of the mid-air strike and the explosion next to the plane?" Aliyev said.
He added that attempts to deny the obvious fact or to cover it up are "both absurd and stupid."
The President of Azerbaijan emphasized that the fact that the plane's fuselage was full of holes completely dismissed the version of a collision with a flock of birds. He also completely rejected the version promoted by some Russian agencies about a gas cylinder blast on board.
"One of the moments that upset and surprised us was that Russian officials put forward versions about the explosion of some gas cylinder. That is, this openly showed that the Russian side seeks to hush up the issue, and this, of course, does no one any honor," he said.
According to Aliyev, the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet was not shot down intentionally, but the Russian side must admit its guilt and apologize.
"The president said that admitting guilt, apologizing in time to Azerbaijan, which is considered a friendly nation, and communicating this all to the public were all measures and steps that needed to be taken. As the head of state said, unfortunately, over the past three days we heard nothing from Russia except absurd versions," the AZERTAG report says.
Separately, Aliyev praised the professionalism of the pilots who saved some of the passengers by landing a plane that had largely gone out of their control. Also, thanks to their effort, public found out that "the plane was shot down by Russia."
"The pilots showed both professionalism and heroism by operating a rouge plane. Although, of course, the pilots were experienced enough to be aware that they would not survive the emergency landing. However, in order to save passengers, they showed enormous heroism, and it is because of this that there are survivors in the crash. It was because of this that part of the fuselage did not go ablaze, and it is thanks to this that today we can clearly say that the plane was shot down by Russia," he said.
As Ukrinform reported earlier the Embraer passenger jet, flight J2-8243, crashed on Wednesday, December 25, near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. The plane en route Baku–Grozny deviated hundreds of kilometers off its course toward the Caspian Sea before crashing on the opposite coast.
Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board died in the crash.
Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said the passenger jet had been shot down by the Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system.
The White House says it has evidence that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane was downed by a Russian air defense system.
Photo: AZERTAG
