Azerbaijan’s president accuses Russia of downing airliner in Christmas Day crash and covering up cause

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has accused Russia of accidentally shooting down an airliner on Christmas Day in a disaster that killed 38 people, and covering up the cause. “We can clearly say today that the plane was shot down by Russia. This is a fact,” Aliyev said in a televised interview, according to a transcript posted on Azerbaijan’s presidential website. “No one can deny this fact,” Aliyev continued. “Again, we are not saying that this was done intentionally, but it was done.” The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was traveling to Grozny in Chechnya before it made an emergency landing near Aktau, Kazakhstan, the airline said on Wednesday. Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency first said the plane crashed after colliding with birds, though it later said Ukrainian combat drones and dense fog forced the plane out of Russian airspace. Perforations in the plane’s body that look similar to damage from shrapnel or debris led many to believe the plane was shot down by Russian air defense units, including a US official who told CNN that signs pointed to a Russian system striking the plane. “The fact that the fuselage is riddled with holes indicates that the theory of the plane hitting a flock of birds… is completely removed from the agenda,” Aliyev said in Sunday’s interview. “It is possible that when the plane was damaged, when it was hit, the pilot could have perceived it as a collision with birds. Because it would probably never have occurred to anyone that our plane might be fired at from the ground while flying over a country friendly to us,” he continued.<br/>