The diplomatic body stressed that the conversation between the ministers was a continuation of the dialogue that took place the same day between the presidents of the two countries, where both stressed the need to establish all the causes of the accident.
After confirming the presidents’ agreements on the need to ensure the most thorough investigation of this tragic accident, the ministers expressed their deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” the statement said.
The senior diplomats also “stressed the need to establish all the causes of the accident and take urgent measures to prevent similar situations in the future, as well as to achieve a final and complete clarification of what happened taking into account all the circumstances.”
There was also an exchange of views on the upcoming contacts at the highest level between Russia and Azerbaijan, the note highlights.
On the morning of December 25, an Embraer 190 of Azerbaijan Airlines with 67 people on board, in a flight from the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny, crashed near the runway of the airport in the city of Aktau, located in western Kazakhstan.
According to the latest data, 38 people died in the accident. The Russian air transport agency, Rosaviatsia, specified that the plane was diverted from the Russian city of Grozny in the middle of an Ukrainian drone attack when the airport was covered in dense fog with zero visibility at an altitude of 500 meters.
After two failed approaches, according to the agency, the pilot of the aircraft “decided to head to the Aktau airport”, on the other side of the Caspian Sea.
Rosaviatsia acknowledged that several circumstances coincided that require a joint investigation.
For its part, Azerbaijan Airlines pointed to “external physical and technical interference” and suspended flights from the Azerbaijani capital to 10 Russian cities: Grozny, Makhachkala, Mineralnye Vodi, Nizhni Novgorod, Samara, Saratov, Sochi, Ufa, Vladikavkaz and Volgograd.
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