Hong Kong
CNN
—
Azerbaijan’s leader has accused the Russian government of a “cover-up” over last month’s passenger plane crash that killed 38 people, as relations between the two neighbors worsen.
President Ilham Aliyev met on Monday with the families of the two surviving flight attendants and the other crew members who died, and a preliminary investigation into the crash, in which the plane was hit by Russian air defenses, Azerbaijan’s state news agency (AZERTAC) said. This has been confirmed. .
Aliyev said the skies above Grozny, the capital of Russia’s southern Chechen republic, were closed for the first time after the plane crash.
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 was heading from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny when it was forced to make an emergency landing in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day. The accident killed 38 of the 67 passengers and crew.
“I can confidently say that the representatives of the Russian Federation are responsible for the death of the Azerbaijani people in this accident,” Aliyev said. “We demand justice, we demand punishment for perpetrators, we demand full transparency and humane treatment.”
A few days after the crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized, saying, “The tragic incident took place in Russian airspace,” but did not accept responsibility.
According to the Kremlin, Putin said Russian air defense systems were activated and the area was under attack by Ukrainian combat drones when the plane tried to land in Grozny.
Aliyev again accused Russia of a “cover-up” on Monday, saying the “attention focused on the absurd version” of the crash had caused Azerbaijan’s “surprise, regret and righteous indignation”. Ta.
“If the city of Grozny had taken appropriate measures to close Russian airspace over its territory, then all the rules for ground operations would have been complied with and there would have been coordination between the armed forces and civil servants of the Russian Federation. “If this tragedy hadn’t happened, it wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
Apart from protocol, his television comments were made in Russian rather than Azerbaijani.
Aliyev also praised the heroism and courage of the flight’s crew, praising the pilot’s “professionalism” and ability to make an emergency landing to save some of the passengers.
The plane, a Brazilian-made Embraer 190, was carrying people from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The Brazilian Air Force announced on Monday that investigators had completed extracting data from two black box recorders recovered from the crash, Reuters reported. Kazakhstan’s state news agency said the flight recorder was sent to Brazil, where international experts along with Azerbaijani experts analyzed the equipment to ensure transparency and reliability.
Reuters said the data was sent to Kazakh authorities investigating the crash. The Kazakh government is cooperating with Azerbaijan’s investigation.
Separately, the Kremlin announced that Russia’s Investigative Committee had opened a criminal case in connection with the disaster.
Video and images from the aftermath of the plane crash showed holes in the plane’s fuselage, likely caused by debris and debris damage. The cause of the hole has not been confirmed.
“We will know the initial results in the near future and are confident that everything will be fine. The full scope of the tragedy that occurred will also be revealed,” Aliyev said. “Of course, this will be an important moment for a thorough investigation of the tragedy and for the punishment of the perpetrators.”
