Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on Saturday for the Azerbaijani plane crash in Kazakhstan causing 38 deaths and leaving 29 people injured.
Kremlin in a statement read that Putin apologized for the incident to have happened in Russian airspace. He offered deep and sincere condolences to the victim’s families and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.
Kremlin stated, “The Russian Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case under Article 263 of the Criminal Code (violation of the rules for traffic safety and operation of the air transportation systems).”
It mentioned that an initial investigation is underway with civilian and military specialists being questioned by the authorities. It notified that relevant services of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan were working closely at the crash site near the city of Aktau.
The Azerbaijani Airlines plane was initially scheduled to land in Grozny on December 25, but after two unsuccessful attempts, it was unable to land due to ongoing Ukrainian drone strikes on the city’s civilian infrastructure and hence decided to land in Aktau airport in Kazakhstan where it crashed
