Putin apologizes to Aliyev over ‘tragic incident’ with Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash

The black box of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan this week, believed to have been hit by Russian air defense missiles, is being sent to Brazil for investigation, Kazakh authorities said Sunday.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused Moscow of trying to cover up its responsibility.

Azerbaijan pays tribute to pilots and passengers who perished in air crash

The pilots have been interred in Azerbaijan's most sacred modern burial ground, after landing in a way which allowed 29 people to survive but led to their own deaths.

The versions of events put forward by Russia after the crash “clearly show that the Russian side wanted to cover up the case”, Ilham Aliev said on national television on Sunday, according to the state news agency Azertac. The day before, Vladimir Putin had apologized for a “tragic accident”.

Investigations continue to clarify what really happened to the Azerbaijani Airlines plane that crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, on 25 December. Flight J2-8243, which had taken off from Baku, Azerbaijan, bound for Grozny, Chechnya, hit the ground with 67 people on board, resulting in at least 38 deaths and 29 survivors. Despite the fact that a few days have passed since the incident, the circumstances are confusing and have led to different interp…

Azerbaijan airlines crash: UK calls for complete, independent probe

President Putin apologised “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace” stopped short of admitting responsibility for the incident