New up-close images of the wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines flight JS-8243 show the doomed flight appears to have been struck by numerous fragments or other similar objects before crash-landing in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day.
The fuselage and tail section of the Embraer 190 passenger jet are stippled with hundreds of holes of various size — some resembling bullet holes, others appearing large enough that a person could put their fist through.
Thirty-eight of the airliner’s 67 passengers were killed in the crash, which multiple sources close to the investigation now tell Reuters was caused by Russia’s air defense systems.
“No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft,” one source said, referencing the Eurasian nation’s capital.
Wednesday’s crash quickly led to rampant speculation from Russian military bloggers and aviation analysts that the damage looked like it was caused by shrapnel from some type of anti-missile system.
The Chechnya-bound jet veered hundreds of miles off-course after diverting from an area in southern Russia where air defense systems have been frequently used to thwart Ukrainian drone strikes.
A Russian flight watchdog agency said at the time the diversion and emergency landing attempt was due to a bird strike.
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned against jumping to conclusions during his daily press conference.
“It would be incorrect to make any hypotheses before the investigation comes to conclusions, and we definitely cannot do it and no one should do it,” he said.