Russia's aviation chief said Friday that a Ukrainian drone attack was under way in the region of Chechnya at the time an Azerbaijani airliner attempted to land before diverting to Kazakhstan and crashing there earlier this week.
Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, didn't comment on statements by an Azerbaijani lawmaker and many aviation experts who blamed Wednesday's crash on Russian air defence fire.
Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer 190 was flying from Azerbaijan's capital of Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, but it turned to Aktau in Kazakhstan across the Caspian Sea and crashed while making an attempt to land there. The crash killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured.
Authorities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia were tight-lipped about a possible cause of the crash pending an official probe, but a member of Azerbaijan's parliament, Rasim Musabekov told the Azerbaijani news agency Turan on Thursday