Independent Russian media claim that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed yesterday in Kazakhstan may have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired by Moscow forces . This hypothesis is also being relaunched by Ukrainian media.
The potential use of air defense systems would be consistent with several reports that Chechnya was attacked by drones on the morning of December 25. According to the independent Russian media Meduza, images of the downed Azerbaijani plane show traces consistent with a large missile impact on the tail section of the aircraft. Some survivors also reported hearing an explosion while the plane was in flight .
The plane's black box has since been recovered from the crash site and will soon be analyzed, according to Azerbaijani media.
The crashed plane had 69 people on board, 38 of whom died, according to Kazakh authorities . The Embraer 190 was operating a flight between Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and Grozny, the capital of the Russian Caucasian Republic of Chechnya.
Videos published by Russian media show the plane hitting the ground and immediately bursting into a huge fire. Other images show the plane on the ground, partially charred, with its front end completely destroyed.
(Online Union)