Azerbaijani: Russia pledged to punish aircraft crash responsible

Azerbaijan has said on Monday that Moscow has promised it would punish those responsible for the collapse of a Azerbaijani Airlines company plane, which Baku believes has collapsed from Russian air defence.

The plane crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25th, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

The incident has prompted many airline companies to cancel flights to Russia, including Israeli airline El Al, which has said Monday it will suspend flights to Moscow by the end of March.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has called from Moscow to accept responsibility for the plane's crash, while making efforts to land at Grozn Airport in southern Russia.

Russia has not confirmed that an air defence missile has hit the plane, although Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Aliyev over the phone at the weekend that systems have been active at the time, and regrets that the incident occurred in Russian airspace.

Azerbaijan's Attorney General has said Monday that the Chief of the Detective Committee in Russia has told Baku that intensive measures are under way to identify the culprits and face justice.

Russia has said it has launched its investigation into the incident, but it has not been declared unless it agrees that the plane was hit by its air protection.

Aliyev has been tough on Moscow's sentence.

He's said the plane was accidentally <x0... hit”, but he's angry why Russia tried to hide the cause of the crash.

Urging Putin to accept responsibility, Aliyev has accused Russia of advancing alternative theories, “has clearly indicated that the Russian side has tried to hide” reality.

Russia has said Grozni, located in Chechnya, Russia's southern region, has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian fears when the Azerbaijanian company's plane has attempted to land in dense fog.

Survivors have said that they have heard explosions outside the plane, which has strayed more than 400 kilometers [400 km] and attempted to land in the Kazakh city of Aktau, but has eventually collapsed.

Kazakhstan has said on Monday that it has sent the black boxes to Brazil, where it is based on the Embrarer plant production company used by the Azerbaijann line to conduct detailed investigations. / REL