Probe Of Plane Crash Points To Russia

Investigators think antiaircraft fire hit Azeri flight that went down in Kazakhstan

- THOMAS GROVE

The preliminary results of Azerbaijan's investigation into the deadly crash of a civilian airliner point to the plane's being hit by a Russian antiaircraft missile, or shrapnel from it, people briefed on the probe said.

Azerbaijan's initial findings come quickly after aviation experts said visible damage to the Azerbaijan Airlines flightcarrying 62 passengers and five crew members-was evidence that it had been hit by a munition. The crash killed 38 people, and left 29 survivors, some of whom said they heard a loud explosion that preceded the flight's problems.

Flight 8243 to Grozny in Russia's Chechnya region from the Azeri capital Baku suddenly diverted course when flying over a part of Russia where the military had been shooting down Ukrainian drones. The plane went down Wednesday in western Kazakhstan near the Caspian Sea city of Aktau. Of the survivors, many were in critical condition at hospitals.

The people familiar with the probe said Russia diverted the plane from its airspace and had its GPS jammed. They said Azerbaijan was deliberating over a response to the crash.

Neither the country's civil aviation agency nor the presidential office responded to requests for comment.

Russia's Federal Air Traffic Agency said the crash followed the plane's running into a flock of birds. When asked about the investigation's preliminary indications of Russian involvement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was too early to come to conclusions about the cause of the crash.