Azerbaijan Airlines says aircraft faced ’physical and technical external interference’ ahead of deadly crash

Azerbaijan Airlines craindicated on Friday that its passenger jet had “physical and technical external interference” before crashing in Kazakhstan. 

Announcing the suspension of flights to 10 Russian airports, Azerbaijan Airlines said the decision was “based on the preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft operating the Baku-Grozny flight J2-8243 of Azerbaijan Airlines due to physical and technical external interference”.

Two passengers on the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan told Reuters that they heard at least one loud bang as it approached its original destination of Grozny in southern Russia.