- An Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38.
- An oxygen tank exploded before the crash, Kazakhstan's transport minister said.
- The plane was likely hit by Russian air defense before the crash, BI reported Thursday.
An oxygen tank on an Azerbaijan Airlines flight exploded before the plane crashed on Wednesday, Kazakhstan's transport minister said.
The minister, Marat Karabayev, did not say the oxygen-tank explosion caused the fiery crash that killed 38 people on Christmas Day.
Some analysts have blamed Russia for the crash, saying it likely fired an air-defense missile at the plane by mistake.
The Embraer 190 was bound for Russia from Azerbaijan — but veered off course after sustaining some kind of damage. The plane crossed the Caspian Sea to crash-land at the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan.
At a press briefing Thursday, Karabayev said a Kazakh control center heard from a Russian dispatcher that the flight was being diverted. The dispatcher later said an oxygen cylinder had exploded in the passenger cabin of the aircraft and some passengers were losing consciousness.
Karabayev said that triggered an emergency response in Aktau. Rescuers arrived at the airport quickly and managed to rescue 29 of the 67 passengers.
The plane departed from Baku, Azerbaijan, early Wednesday, heading for Grozny, Russia.
Azerbaijani investigators believe Russia shot the plane down with a Pantsir-S air-defense system, The New York Times and Euronews TV reported Thursday.
Russia denied playing a role in the crash and said the plane was diverted after a bird strike — an explanation analysts were swift to dismiss.
Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security firm, said in an alert sent to its clients and shared with BI that the flight was "likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system of unspecified type/variant over the North Caucasus Federal District."
Kazakhstan's transport ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.