Sawt Falasteen - Russia says Azerbaijani plane tried to land during Ukraine drone attack

The Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday after attempting to land at its destination in Grozny and then diverting far off course across the Caspian Sea.

Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board died, with some reports suggesting the plane could have been accidentally shot at by Russian air defences.

A surviving passenger told Russian TV that an explosion appeared to take place outside the plane, with shrapnel flying in.

The head of Russia's civil aviation agency, Dmitry Yadrov, said in a statement that "the situation on this day and at these hours in the area of Grozny airport was very complex".

"Ukrainian attack drones at this time were making terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz," Yadrov said, referring to a nearby city.

Yadrov said the Azeri pilot made "two attempts to land the plane in Grozny that were unsuccessful" in "thick fog".

"The pilot was offered other airports. He took the decision to go to Aktau airport," he added.

The Kremlin earlier Friday declined to comment on the deadly crash.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that "until the conclusions of the investigation, we do not consider we have the right to make any comments and we will not do so".

Some aviation and military experts have pointed to apparent shrapnel damage on the plane wreckage as evidence that it was hit by air defence.

Azerbaijan's pro-government website Caliber and several other media have cited unnamed Azerbaijani officials as saying they believed a Russian missile fired from a Pantsir-S air defence system caused the plane to crash.

Ukraine's presidency said Russia "must be held responsible for the downing" of the plane.

- Shrapnel -

Russian survivor Subkhonkul Rakhimov told RT state broadcaster that an explosion appeared to happen outside the plane, causing shrapnel to penetrate inside.

He said the explosion took place as the plane made a third attempt to land in Grozny in fog.

"The third time there was an explosion. I wouldn't say it was inside the plane because the skin of the fuselage near where I was sitting flew off," he said.

"I grabbed a lifejacket and saw there was a hole in it -- it was pierced by shrapnel."

"Somewhere between my legs this piece of shrapnel flew in and went right through the life jacket. I took a picture of the hole on my phone."

The daughter of an air steward on the plane told AFP that her father, Zulfugar Asadov, was being treated in hospital for injuries to his head and back but had not broken any bones.

"He is in pain, his back hurts, he cannot speak much," the woman, Konula Asadova, told AFP.

Azerbaijan Airlines said Friday it was suspending flights to 10 Russian cities, "taking into account flight safety risks".

- Apology urged -

Contacted by AFP, Azerbaijani government officials did not respond to questions about the possible causes of the crash.

But Rasim Musabekov, an Azerbaijani lawmaker and member of the parliament's international relations committee, urged Russia to apologise for the incident.

"They have to accept this, punish those to blame, promise that such a thing will not happen again, express regrets and readiness to pay compensation," Musabekov told AFP.

"We are waiting for Russia to do this."

He said the plane "was damaged in the sky over Grozny and asked to make an emergency landing".

"According to all the rules of aviation, they should have allowed this and organised it."

Instead the plane was not allowed to land at Grozny or nearby Russian airports and was "sent far away" across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan with "GPS switched off", Musabekov said.

He suggested that the aim could have been for the plane to crash into the sea to "cover up a crime".

If air defences were operating near Grozny airport, "they should have closed the air space. The plane should have been turned around as it approached Grozny. Why wasn't this done?" he added.

burs/dt/phz

L.Hussein--SF-PST