Moscow: The Kremlin said Friday that it would not comment on the deadly crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane until an inquiry was completed,

A survivor of Wednesday’s Azerbaijan Airlines crash said the plane’s pilots tried to land in Grozny, Chechnya three times, followed by an explosion outside the plane, according to an audio recording shared by Russian TV channel RT.

Azerbaijan Airlines has suspended flights between Baku and Chechnya following a crash involving an Embraer EMBR3.SA with 67 people on board. The accident occurred near Aktau, Kazakhstan, amid drone strikes in southern Russia.

Kazakh authorities have recovered the flight data recorder and an investigation is under way. Shortly after the crash, reports from Russian state-controlled TV said the most likely cause was a strike from a flock of birds.

By Nailia Bagirova and Gleb Stolyarov BAKU (Reuters) -Russian air defences downed an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people, four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday.

Azerbaijan’s flag carrier has announced the suspension of flights to several Russian airports, citing potential flight safety risks following a crash of one of its planes that many experts have blamed on Russian air defense fire.

Aviation experts say that Russian air defense fire was likely responsible for the Azerbaijani plane crash the day before that killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured.

Early indications suggest a Russian anti-aircraft system may have downed the passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, a US official told CNN as Azerbaijan held a day of mourning for the dozens of victims of the disaster.

The preliminary results of Azerbaijan’s investigation into the deadly crash of a civilian airliner point to the plane being hit by a Russian antiaircraft missile, or shrapnel from it, said people briefed on the probe.