Putin apologises for 'tragic incident' following crash of Azerbaijani airliner

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00:00Since the crash of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 243, suspicions have been growing over Russia's

00:05involvement. On Saturday, the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had apologised to

00:10his Azerbaijani counterpart over the phone. He admitted that Russian air defence was active

00:15at the time, but stopped short of taking responsibility.

00:20In the conversation, it was noted that the Azerbaijani passenger aircraft,

00:24which was following the schedule, repeatedly tried to land at the airport of Grozny.

00:29At the same time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were attacked by Ukrainian

00:33combat drones and Russian air defence systems repelled these attacks.

00:38The Russian president did not confirm that the plane had been hit

00:41by a Russian air defence missile. For experts, however, there is no doubt.

00:46They say these holes in the plane's fuselage are proof of shrapnel from an anti-aircraft missile.

00:53Meanwhile, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev,

00:56said that the plane was hit in Russian airspace by external physical interference,

01:01as suggested by survivors' accounts.

01:08There were two explosions with five minutes intervals. After that, we were able to fly

01:14for one hour or one hour and a half. After that, the plane started going down. People

01:21were under their seats. I was too, with my seat belt still on.

01:29Since the crash, which killed 38 people, Azerbaijan Airlines has announced that it

01:33would be suspending flights to eight other Russian cities. Other airlines from Kazakhstan,

01:38Israel and Dubai have followed suit and cancelled flights to Russia.

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