Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev believes that the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane, which was en route from Baku to Grozny route, could have been avoided. He stated this at his meeting with the families of the crew members who lost their lives and the surviving flight attendants from the crash.

In particular, according to the head of Azerbaijan, the tragedy would not have happened "if timely measures had been taken to close the Russian airspace near the city of Grozny."

He emphasized that Azerbaijan “will demand justice and the punishment of those responsible for the deaths of Azerbaijani citizens in this disaster.”

Aliyev added that Azerbaijan may agree to decode the data recorded by the Interstate Aviation Committee by the flight recorders of the aforesaid aircraft, if it is sure of their objectivity.

"We have been cooperating with this structure for decades, we have been cooperating with it quite actively. And this structure was essentially in charge of investigating airplane crashes in the former USSR," he said.

The president of Azerbaijan said that the information obtained from the black boxes was being deciphered in Brazil, which, according to him, will enable to recreate the complete picture of the tragedy that happened.