Azerbaijan plane was hit from outside, possibly by weapon, minister says – National [Video]

An Azerbaijani minister suggested Friday that an airliner that crashed this week was hit by a weapon, citing expert analysis and survivor testimony indicating that the plane was struck from the outside.

The statement from Rashad Nabiyev raised pressure on Russia. Officials in Moscow have said a drone attack was underway in the region that the Azerbaijan Airlines flight was destined for but have not addressed statements from aviation experts who blamed the crash on Russian air defenses responding to a Ukrainian attack.

The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, on Wednesday when it turned toward Kazakhstan and crashed while making an attempt to land there. The crash killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured.

Nabiyev, Azerbaijan’s minister of digital development and transportation, told Azerbaijani media that “preliminary conclusions by experts point at external impact,” …