Russian president Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that the country’s air defence system was responsible for crippling an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190, which subsequently crashed while attempting to divert to Aktau.
Putin made the admission during a meeting in Dushanbe with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev on 9 October.
He said the investigation into the crash – which occurred on 25 December last year, as the E190 was approaching Grozny – was “coming to an end”.
Putin referred to the matter, which led to tension between the two sides, as “the most sensitive topic” of his discussion with Aliyev.
He said “several” factors were involved, pointing out that three Ukrainian drones had crossed the Russian border, and were being tracked, at the time.
But Putin also acknowledged that “technical failures” occurred within the Russian air defence system.
“The two missiles that were fired didn’t directly hit the aircraft – if that had happened, it would have crashed on the spot – but exploded, perhaps self-destructing, a few metres away,” he said.
“So the damage occurred, not primarily from the warheads, but most likely from debris from the missiles themselves.”
Putin said this explained why the E190 crew perceived the impact as a bird-strike.
While the crew was advised to divert to Makhachkala, the pilots opted to head instead to Kazakhstan. The aircraft’s flight controls were badly damaged and the E190 crashed while trying to land at Aktau airport.
The accident resulted in 38 fatalities but 29 occupants survived.
Putin stated that the “actions of all officials” connected to the occurrence will be “legally assessed”, and that Russia would “do everything necessary” to provide compensation.
“Our duty…is to provide an objective assessment of everything that happened and identify the true causes,” he added. “But this takes time. It will probably take some more time to finally put an end to this.”
