Azerbaijan Airlines flight riddled with shrapnel holes: pictures

New close-up images of the wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight JS-8243 show that the doomed flight appeared to have been struck by numerous fragments or other similar objects before crashing in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day.

The fuselage and tail of the Embraer 190 passenger jet are riddled with hundreds of holes of varying sizes – some resembling bullet holes, others appearing large enough for a person to put their fist through.

The crash killed 38 of the plane’s 67 passengers. Multiple sources familiar with the investigation now tell Reuters that the crash was caused by Russian air defense systems.

“No one is saying it was intentional. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to shooting down the Azerbaijani plane,” said a source, referring to the capital of the Eurasian country.

Wednesday’s crash quickly led to intense speculation from Russian military bloggers and aviation analysts that the damage appeared to have been caused by shrapnel from some type of missile defense system.

The Chechnya-bound jet veered hundreds of kilometers off course after leaving an area in southern Russia where air defense systems have often been deployed to thwart Ukrainian drone strikes.

A Russian aviation regulator said at the time that the diversion and emergency landing attempt was due to a bird strike.

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned against hasty conclusions in his daily press conference.

“It would be wrong to make any hypotheses before the investigation reaches conclusions and we definitely cannot do it and no one should do it,” he said.