A passenger plane en route from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Chechnya, crashed on Wednesday, December 25th, near Aktau, Kazakhstan, leading to multiple casualties and sparking a debate over the cause of the incident. The aircraft deviated from its intended course, turning towards Kazakhstan before the crash.
Initial reports indicated that the plane was attempting to land when it went down. However, the exact circumstances surrounding the crash remain under scrutiny as conflicting explanations emerge.
The Kremlin acknowledged that air defense systems were active near Grozny on the same day due to a Ukrainian drone strike, but refrained from linking this activity directly to the plane crash. This statement comes in the wake of heightened regional tensions.
Meanwhile, a US official and an Azerbaijani minister independently attributed the crash to an external weapon. These separate statements suggest the possibility of an external factor contributing to the disaster, deviating from earlier reports of a failed landing. Further investigation is expected to clarify the exact cause of the incident.
