Putin apologises to Aliyev over Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash tragedy

Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologised to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a "tragic incident" following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people.

In an official statement Saturday, the Kremlin said air defence systems were firing near Grozny on Wednesday due to a Ukrainian drone strike, but stopped short of saying one of these hit the plane.

On Friday, a US official and an Azerbaijani minister made separate statements blaming the crash on an external weapon.

The plane was flying on Wednesday from Azerbaijan's capital of Baku to Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, when it turned toward Kazakhstan and crashed while making an attempt to land. There were 29 survivors.

Azerbaijan Airlines said on Friday that preliminary results showed that one of its planes which crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25 experienced "external physical and technical interference".

The statement from the company came as a passenger on the ill-fated plane said there was at least one loud bang as it approached its original destination of Grozny in southern Russia.