Azerbaijan held a day of mourning on Thursday for the dozens of victims of an airliner crash in Kazakhstan, as questions were being asked over the cause of the disaster.

The Azerbaijan Airlines flight was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, southern Russia, when it diverted and crash-landed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. Twenty-nine passengers survived.

ASTANA/TBILISI/BAKU >> An Embraer passenger jet crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people, after diverting from an area of Russia that Moscow has recently defended against Ukrainian drone attacks.

An Azerbaijan Airlines flight from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Russia crashed, hospitalizing survivors while dozens are feared dead.

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed hundreds of miles away from its intended destination in Russia with dozens having being killed in the impact on Christmas Day

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.

Azerbaijan on Thursday observed a nationwide day of mourning for the victims of the plane crash that killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured as speculation mounted about a possible cause of the disaster, with some experts saying that the airliner was damaged by Russian air defense fire.

An Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan was downed by a Russian air defence system, four sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation have said.

The Russian government has warned against promoting “hypotheses” on the causes of the crash of a passenger plane bound for Russia that resulted in the deaths of 38 people in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, a

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed killing 38 people was downed by a Russian air defence system, according to four Reuters sources. The Embraer 190 passenger jet was en route from Azerbaijan 's capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it changed course.

An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash on Christmas Day has prompted speculation the plane was shot down by Russia after it took a detour of hundreds of miles in the wrong direction and crash-landed with holes in the fuselage.