The Azerbaijani government has publicly made reference to a weapon used against the passenger plane that crashed earlier this week near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people.
“The investigation will clarify what kind of weapon was used to cause the external impact,” Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev said on Friday, according to the Azerbaijani state news agency Azertag.
Nabiyev said that the wreckage and witness statements suggested that the aircraft had been damaged from the outside above the original destination airport in Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.
“According to these [statements], there was an explosive noise outside and then the aircraft was hit by something,” he said.
At the time the plane was damaged on Wednesday morning, Russian air defences were reportedly engaged in combat with Ukrainian drones in the region.
Nabiyev did not specify who, according to government intelligence, had fired at the aircraft.
Several media outlets, citing unnamed Azerbaijani government sources, had previously reported that the crash was a result of a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
Spokesman for the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, echoed these suspicions on Friday. “We have seen some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems,” the US official said.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the preliminary investigation results suggest the incident was caused by “physical and technical effects from outside.”
Photos of the aircraft’s tail section show damage that resembles the impact holes of shrapnel from anti-aircraft weapons.
Nabiyev also questioned why the plane attempted an emergency landing in Aktau, noting that it had flown over the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan, following the damage.
Investigators would have to clarify whether an emergency landing had been authorized or denied in Makhachkala, he said, as well as why the aircraft’s satellite position had been disrupted.