Footage of the wreckAzerbaijan Airlines flight JS-8243 shows the tail of the plane with holes.
Thirty-eight passengers and crew members were killed when the plane, which was traveling from Baku Airport to Grozny, the capital RussiaChechnya, crashed near Aktau Airport in Kazakhstan; 29 of them survived.
Mark Zee of OPSGroup, which monitors the world’s airspace and airports for risk, said analysis of fragments from the downed plane indicated a 90-99 percent probability that it had been hit by a surface-to-air missile.
Allegedly, Russian air defenses shot down the plane, four sources familiar with the early findings of the Azerbaijani investigation told Reuters.
Russia has denied the accusations; his aviation watchdog suggested an early investigation revealed the pilot had decided to change the landing site after a “bird strike”.