Putin apologized to the leader of Azerbaijan for the “tragic incident” related to the plane that crashed in Kazakhstan

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” on Saturday. The crash of the Azerbaijani plane that killed 38 people in Kazakhstan.

“Embraer 190” flight number 8243 of “Azerbaijan Airlines” was diverted on Wednesday for unknown reasons while flying from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the city of Grozny in the North Caucasus region of Russia.

He crashed while trying to reach another airport in Aktau, western Kazakhstan. Cell phone footage shows the plane making a steep descent and exploding in a ball of flames before touching down about two miles from Aktau airport.

The airline said that there were 67 people on the plane – 62 passengers and 5 crew members, and 38 people died as a result of the accident. 29 people survived.

Putin’s call to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev came after the possibility that Russian air defenses accidentally shot down the plane grew.

In an official statement on Saturday, the Kremlin refrained from saying that air defense systems near Grozny were fired on Wednesday due to a Ukrainian drone strike, but that one of them had hit the plane.

“(President) Vladimir Putin apologized for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery,” the Kremlin statement said.

The Kremlin said that the call was made at Putin’s request.

Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia have started investigations into the causes of the accident. The Kremlin called people should not jump to conclusions. Investigators recovered both so-called black boxes, flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the crash site.

On Friday, the US official and the Azerbaijani minister separately announced that the cause of the accident was a foreign weapon.

A U.S. official told CBS News that there are initial indications that a Russian anti-aircraft system shot down the plane in an area where Ukrainian and Russian forces have traded drone and missile fire for months. If true, it would further highlight Russia’s ongoing recklessness, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The occupation of Ukraine.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that U.S. officials “have seen some initial indications that this aircraft may have been shot down by Russian air defense systems.”

He confirmed to reporters that the United States had intelligence or information pointing to that possibility, but said that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were currently investigating and that the United States would “respect that process.”

Passengers and crew who survived the accident told the Azerbaijani press that they heard loud noises on the plane circling over Grozny.