On the morning of December 25, 2025, an Embraer 190 passenger aircraft of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) crashed near Aktau in western Kazakhstan while en route from Baku to Grozny. The exact cause remains unclear,

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 caught fire as it tried to make an emergency landing in Aktau, southwestern Kazakhstan, on Wednesday. It was traveling from the Azeri capital Baku to Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.

An Azerbaijan Airlines plane flying from Baku to Grozny that crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan was shot down by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system. Source: Reuters, citing its sources Quote: "One of the Azerbaijani sources familiar with Azerbaijan's investigation into the crash told Reuters that preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system.

RUSSIA downed a passenger plane over Kazakhstan on Christmas Day killing 38 in a fireball crash, according to government sources. An initial investigation by the Azerbaijani government reportedly

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan to Russia to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. A Kazakh official said 38 people had been killed,

HAUNTING footage shows passengers on board the doomed Azerbaijan Airlines flight just moments before it crashed – killing 38 people. Dozens of passengers, including children, miraculously

The head of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council's Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, also claimed that the crash was caused by the Russian air defence fire.

Several passenger plane crashes have occurred worldwide this year, including a Wednesday morning Azerbaijan Airlines wreck that has left dozens feared dead.

Russia and Kazakhstan have tried to calm speculation about the cause of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, following claims it had been shot down by Russian air defence systems. On Thursday, Moscow urged calm as its foreign minister said it would be wrong to come to conclusions before an investigation into the crash was complete.

There are early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft system may have struck the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, a U.S. official told ABC News.

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku to Grozny in Russia was carrying 67 people when it crashed near Aktau early Wednesday. Kazakh officials said 29 people survived.