Baku detected the Pantsir missile that shot down the AZAL liner

^{Photo: Reuters}
The Azerbaijani government has identified a fragment of a Russian missile from the Pantsir-S system that shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane on December 25, Reuters reported on Tuesday, February 4, citing a senior official in Baku.

"Azerbaijan has a fragment of a Pantsir-S missile, which was taken from the plane and identified during an international examination," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, the Kazakh Ministry of Transport published a 53-page report on the plane crash. It said that “numerous damages” to the plane’s fuselage indicated “intrusion of foreign objects.” The document did not mention the Pantsir-S system or any missiles.

Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport: Fragments still being examined

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, commenting on the report, said that the plane was fully airworthy but had been damaged by “foreign objects.”

“Foreign objects that did not belong to the aircraft were found and removed in the damaged areas of the fuselage; their photographs were made public in the text of the initial report. Additional examinations are planned in the future to clarify the foreign objects found,” the Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport added in a statement to the local Axar portal. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”