President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev addressed the December 2024 crash of Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8243 during an interview with US television channel Fox News.
The head of state stressed that Azerbaijan does not consider the incident a deliberate act:
“The only thing that we demanded was to admit that, punish those who committed that crime, even if it was not intentional, and pay compensation to the victims and to the airline.”
On December 25, 2024, AZAL passenger flight 8243, traveling from Baku to Grozny, crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. Of the 67 people on board, 38 were killed and 29 survived.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the crash was caused by physical and technical external interference while the aircraft was in Russian airspace over Grozny.
