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Azerbaijan says plane was shot at from Russia

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Aliyev says plane was jammed electronically

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He says some in Russia tried to cover up the causes

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Putin apologised to Aliyev for incident in Russian air

space

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Pilots lauded for handling of crashed Azerbaijan plane

(Recasts with Azerbaijan's president saying the plane was shot

at from Russia, paragraphs 1, 3-6)

By Nailia Bagirova and Anton Kolodyazhnyy

BAKU/MOSCOW, Dec 29 (Reuters) -

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday that a

passenger plane that

crashed

last week, killing 38 people, had been damaged by shooting

from the ground in Russia, and he said some in Russia had lied

about the cause of the disaster.

President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to Aliyev

for Wednesday's "tragic incident" in Russian airspace involving

the plane after Russian air defences engaged Ukrainian attack

drones. A Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the

plane, only noting a criminal case had been opened.

"Our plane was shot down by accident," Aliyev told state

television on Sunday, adding that the plane had come under some

sort of electronic jamming and had then been shot at while it

was approaching the southern Russian city of Grozny.

"Unfortunately, in the first three days we heard only

absurd versions from Russia," Aliyev said, citing statements in

Russia that attributed the crash to birds or the explosion of

some sort of gas cylinder.

"We witnessed clear attempts to cover up the matter,"

said the Azerbaijani leader, who has close ties to Russia and

was educated at one of Moscow's top universities.

Aliyev said he wanted Russia to accept it was guilty of

downing the plane and punish those responsible for fatally

damaging the aircraft.

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday

in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after

diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were

attacking several cities.

The extremely rare publicised apology from Putin on Saturday

is the closest Moscow has come to accepting some blame for the

disaster.

Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings

of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster told Reuters on

Thursday that Russian air defences had

mistakenly shot it down.

BURIALS

Earlier on Sunday, Azerbaijan paid tribute to the pilots and

passengers of the plane.

Captain Igor Kshnyakin and co-pilot Alexander

Kalyaninov, both ethnic Russians with Azerbaijan citizenship,

and Hokuma Aliyeva, a flight attendant, were given full honours

at a ceremony at the Alley of Honour in central Baku attended by

Aliyev and his wife, Mehriban.

The pilots have been lauded in Azerbaijan for landing in

a way which allowed 29 people to survive but led to their own

deaths.

The Embraer ( ERJ ) passenger jet had flown from

Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern

Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the

Caspian Sea.

Azerbaijan's presidential office said that after the

yet-to-be explained incident over Russian airspace, the pilots

battled to control the plane - desperately trying to find a

landing spot.

With holes in the fuselage, some crew injured, passengers

praying for their lives in a de-pressurised cabin and the plane

spiralling out of control, the pilots flew across the Caspian

Sea towards their death in a crash landing.

"Only through the courage and professionalism of the pilots

was an emergency landing successfully carried out," Azerbaijan's

presidential office said.

The Alley of Honour is Azerbaijan's most sacred modern

burial ground - where prominent politicians, poets and

scientists are laid to rest, including Heydar Aliyev, the late

father of the current president.

Captain Kshnyakin's daughter, Anastasia Kshnyakina, said her

father was a dedicated pilot who took his responsibilities to

his passengers extremely seriously.

"My father always said: when I take off, I am responsible

not only for my life, but also for the lives of all passengers

and crew members," Kshnyakina said.

"With his last flight, he proved what a true hero should

be."