Russian troops may have mistakenly identified the Azerbaijani Airlines plane as a drone and targeted it with air defense systems, according to NBC News.

The TV channel, citing two US officials, states that the US has intelligence suggesting that Russian forces may have misidentified the Azerbaijani passenger plane and shot it down.

According to the officials, intelligence suggests Russian soldiers mistook the aircraft for a drone, particularly due to its unusual flight pattern and altitude. However, they emphasized that the investigation is still ongoing.

Airplane crash in Kazakhstan

On December 25, a passenger plane of Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau. Almost 40 people died in the crash, and others were hospitalized.

The plane was flying from Baku to Grozny but was not allowed to land in the Chechen capital. When the plane was near Grozny, the city was attacked by drones, and the Russians did not close the airspace.

As a result, the plane was shot down by Russian air defense systems. The pilots were prohibited from landing in Russian territory.

According to the flight attendant, he heard three loud bangs. After that, the airplane lost pressure.