NATO Calls For A Thorough Investigation Of The Fall Of Azerbaijan Airlines Aircraft

Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft with flight number 8243 and registration 4K-AZ65 who had an accident in Kazakhstan. (Wikimedia Commons Mehmet Mustafa Celik)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expressed its condolences for the death toll from the plane crash by Azerbaijan Airlines, calling for a thorough investigation.

Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer 190 aircraft with flight number J2-8243 and registration 4K-AZ65 carrying 62 passengers and five crew, are on their way from Baku, Azerbaijan to Grozny, Russia when it crashed last Wednesday near Aktau City, Kazakhstan.

The incident left 38 people dead, while 29 others survived.

The plane is said to have crashed after turning from southern Russia, where Moscow has repeatedly used its air defense system against Ukrainian drone attacks.

The plane turned hundreds of miles across the Kaspia Sea, before crashing on the coast across the Kaspia Sea after what Russian aviation watchdogs said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and flight victims of Azerbaijan Airlines J28243," NATO spokesman Farah Dakhlallah said in an upload on X.

"We hope those who were injured in the accident recover soon and call for a thorough investigation", he continued.

As previously reported, sources familiar with the results of the preliminary investigation said Russia's air defense system was behind the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane.

One of Azerbaijan's sources familiar with Azerbaijan's investigation into the crash told Reuters preliminary results showed the plane was hit by Russia's Pantsir-S air defense system. Its communication was paralyzed by the electronic warfare system as it approached Grozny, the source said.

"No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the facts, Baku hopes that the Russian side will recognize the shooting of the Azerbaijan plane crash," the source said.

Three other sources confirmed Azerbaijan's investigation had come to the same initial conclusion. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.

Officials did not explain why the plane crossed the sea. Russia's closest airport on the plane's flight path, Makhachkala, closed on Wednesday morning.

Footage recorded by passengers on the plane before falling showed an oxygen mask removed and people wearing life vests. Subsequent footage shows bleeding passengers and bruises getting out of the plane. There were 29 survivors.

Photos of the wreckage show what appears to be damage to the shrapnel in the tail of the plane.

Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Qanat Bozymbaev said he could neither confirm nor refute a thesis that said Russian air defenses brought down the plane.

When asked about the possibility of Russian air defenses shooting down the plane, Kazakh transport prosecutors for the area where the plane crashed said the investigation had not yet reached a definite conclusion.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin, who was asked before a Reuters report on the alleged plane had been shot by Russian air defenses, said it was inappropriate to comment until the investigation was complete.

"It is not appropriate to establish a hypothesis prior to the conclusion of the investigation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.