President: The downing of an Azerbaijani aircraft by Russian forces causes disappointment and dissatisfaction

The downing of an Azerbaijani civilian aircraft by Russian forces and the reaction of Russian officials to the incident are causing enormous disappointment and discontent in Azerbaijan.

As reported by BAKU.WS, this was stated by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in an interview with "Al-Arabiya".

"First of all, this should not have happened, because in the case of drone attacks on Russian airports, they declare a special regime. In Russian, this regime is called 'Carpet,' and when it is declared, all aircraft receive a signal about the drone attack and turn around. Two weeks before the disaster, the same thing happened with our aircraft that was flying to the same Russian city. The pilots received a signal and turned back. This time they did not give such a signal. They gave a signal only after the plane was hit. So, they did this simply to mislead those who will conduct the investigation. They hit the plane twice," said the head of state.

According to the president, only the professionalism and courage of the pilots allowed the plane to land, and fortunately, it landed in Kazakhstan, not in Russia:

"It landed in Kazakhstan, where the crash occurred. Some survived, and there are their testimonies. Two people on the plane were injured by fragments that pierced the fuselage. There are pieces of the plane. I immediately sent a team there. It's not far. Just forty minutes flight from here. Our team arrived at the crash site immediately and filmed everything. You can find the recording on the internet. The entire fuselage was riddled with fragments. It was damaged by the Russian air defense system. First of all, the plane should not have been shot down at all. However, it was a tragic mistake."