Kazakh authorities: Downed Azerbaijani plane likely damaged by "foreign objects"

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan in late December, killing 38 people and blamed on Russia, was likely damaged by "foreign objects," Kazakh authorities said today, without specifying their origin.

The plane was flying from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya in the Caucasus, on December 25. The aircraft crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan, far from its original destination.

The accident killed 38 of the 67 people on board.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who is close to Moscow, accused Russia of a "cover-up" and said the plane was mistakenly shot down by Russian air defenses.

The black boxes of the plane, made by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, were first handed over to Brazil for analysis with the participation of Azerbaijani, Russian and Kazakh experts, and then returned to Kazakhstan.

A preliminary report released today by the transport ministry of Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country also close to Russia, did not give the exact cause of the accident.

The long-awaited document lists numerous damages of various sizes and shapes on several parts of the aircraft, including the fuselage, left wing and engine.

The plane was likely damaged by "foreign objects" of an undetermined nature, the report said.

Ilham Aliyev called on Russia to acknowledge the facts, which Moscow has still not done.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has limited himself to vague apologies and an admission that anti-aircraft fire was fired on the day the plane crashed, but has not said whether it caused the crash.

Several experts have raised the possibility of an air defense system strike, with images showing characteristic holes in the plane's fuselage reminiscent of the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

A Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam was shot down in July 2014 by a Russian BUK anti-aircraft missile over Ukrainian territory controlled by pro-Russian separatist rebels, killing 298 people.

Russia has consistently denied that version of events, although investigators have determined that the BUK missile system was transferred to Russian separatists in Ukraine.