A total of 38 people died when an Azerbaijani aircraft crashed in Kazakhstan, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Qanat Aldabergenuly Bozymbaev said on Wednesday.

The flight was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s south, when it diverted and attempted an emergency landing in Kazakhstan.

"No one claims that it was done on purpose," an Azerbaijan official told Reuters. They added their government "expects the Russian side to confess."

The investigation on the crash of the Embraer E190 while attempting an emergency landing is still ongoing, however reports of a possible involvement of

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane flew hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Baku to Grozny, and crashed on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Russia's aviation watchdog said a bird strike might have been the cause.

We will never forget the beloved people we lost in the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft,” said Azerbaijan Airlines in a statement posted online on Boxing Day. The pro-government AnewZ news station cited Azerbaijan officials as saying shrapnel from a Russian missile was responsible.

An Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which crashed in Kazakhstan on 26 December, was downed by a Russian surface-to-air missile system (SAM). Source: Andrii Kovalenko, Head of the Centre for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine,

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed near Kazakhstan's Aqtau on Christmas Day - while en route from Baku to Grozny in Russia - may have been "accidentally struck" by a Russian surface-to-air missile or antiaircraft fire.

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight ended up hundreds of miles away from its intended destination with the plane crash resulting in dozens of deaths and many unanswered questions

Flight J2-8243 crashed down on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of southern Russia

ASTANA: The Kremlin on Thursday (Dec 26) cautioned against "hypotheses" over the crash of an Azerbaijani plane heading for Russia, killing 38 people, which Azerbaijan of