Azerbaijani government sources have exclusively confirmed to Euronews on Thursday that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Aktau on Wednesday.
According to the sources, the missile was fired at Flight 8432 during drone air activity above Grozny, and the shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew as it exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight.
Government sources have told Euronews that the damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite the pilots’ requests for an emergency landing, and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan.
According to data, the plane’s GPS navigation systems were jammed throughout the flight path above the sea. (…)
Some of the drones Ukraine is using are converted prop-planes (same style as Cessna 152) and others are old Soviet Union drones that also look like small planes.
Quadcopters are used in and near the frontlines but they don’t have the range to attack far out targets in Russia.
The biggest reason why Russian AA shouldn’t be confusing Ukranian long range drones with airliners is that that the airliners are much larger and fly high (at 30,000 feet +) whilst the drones fly much lower exactly to avoid AA.