Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 caught fire as it tried to make an emergency landing in Aktau, southwestern Kazakhstan, on Wednesday. It was traveling from the Azeri capital Baku to Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.

RUSSIA downed a passenger plane over Kazakhstan on Christmas Day killing 38 in a fireball crash, according to government sources. An initial investigation by the Azerbaijani government reportedly

MOSCOW -- The second black box was found at the plane crash site near Aktau, Russian media reported Thursday citing a Kazakh official. Law enforcement agencies of Russia and Azerbaijan will participate in the investigation of the plane crash, the report added.

HAUNTING footage shows passengers on board the doomed Azerbaijan Airlines flight just moments before it crashed – killing 38 people. Dozens of passengers, including children, miraculously

The head of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council's Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, also claimed that the crash was caused by the Russian air defence fire.

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan to Russia to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. A Kazakh official said 38 people had been killed,

Azerbaijan is observing a nationwide day of mourning for the victims of the air crash that killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured as speculation mounted about a possible cause of the crash that remained unknown.

Several passenger plane crashes have occurred worldwide this year, including a Wednesday morning Azerbaijan Airlines wreck that has left dozens feared dead.

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.

Azeri sources said a Russian air defense system could have hit the jet that crashed in Kazakhstan. Thirty-eight people were killed but dozens survived.

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed near Kazakhstan's Aqtau on Christmas Day - while en route from Baku to Grozny in Russia - may have been "accidentally struck" by a Russian surface-to-air missile or antiaircraft fire.