Azerbaijan Airlines reveals cause of Xmas plane crash after it was shot down by Russian anti-aircraft missile killing 38

THE cause of the deadly Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that killed 38 has been revealed.

The Christmas Day disaster saw the aircraft explode into a fireball near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan amid reports that it shot down by a Russian anti-aircraft missile.

East2West

The plane exploded into a fireball[/caption]

Azerbaijan Airlines have now revealed that the cause of the crash was “external physical and technical interference”.

It means that the crash was not caused by a fault on board the aircraft.

The flight had been travelling from Baku, in Azerbaijan, to Grozny, in Russia’s Chechnya.

But tracking data from FlightRadar24 and the plane’s transponder shows the final minutes of the plane’s journey.

The jet flew in an erratic pattern, repeatedly lurching up and down across the Caspian Sea as the hero pilots fought for control of the damaged jet.

After reaching land, they tried to descend towards Aktau Airport but continued struggling to control the doomed aircraft.

An oxygen tank on board the jet is also said to have exploded before the plane crashed, Kazakhstan’s transport minister said.

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