An Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed into a fireball in Kazakhastan was “likely shot down by a Russian military air defense system,” an aviation security firm has said. The plane was en route to Grozny, in Chechnya, when it was diverted almost 300 miles to the east after the pilot declared an emergency. Instead of landing at Aktau in Kazakhstan, it came down almost two miles short of the runway and exploded in flames, killing 38 passengers and crew. Twenty-nine people survived. Although the airline said it was diverted because of fog, UK-based Osprey, said there appeared to have been Ukrainian drones attacking Grozny at the time. A second security firm boss, Justin Crump of UK-based Sibylline, told the BBC that the damage to the plane was consistent with an air defense missile strike. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are both allies of Putin, while Chechnya is a Russian autonomous republic run by a bloodthirsty warlord who is one of Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin’s closest associates. The Kremlin has declined to speculate on the cause of the crash.
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