Increasing analysis suggests Russian air defenses might have downed Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243, which crashed in a ball of fire near Aktau,Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning, killing 38 of 67 passengers and crew.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has launched a criminal probe to uncover the reasons behind the plane crash.

Azerbaijani and US officials suspect a Russian surface-to-air missile downed an Azerbaijani passenger plane, resulting in fatalities. Media reports and a US official revealed this information Thursday.

An investigation is under way into the cause of the crash that killed 38 of 67 people on board the Embraer 190 aircraft.

The Kremlin on Thursday called for restraint after reports emerged that a Russian air defense system could have brought down an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet. The plane, an Embraer 190, was traveling from Baku to Grozny in southern Russia when it crashed on the shore of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

An international investigation has begun into how an Embraer 190 passenger jet with 67 people onboard crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people but leaving 29 survivors Azerbaijan Airlines flight J28243,

Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer 190 crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. Experts suspect Russian air defense fire as the cause. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia are investigating, while theories suggest that the plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile,

What caused the Kazakhstan plane crash? The Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that claimed the lives of 38 people has sparked widespread speculation, with Ukrainian officials now turning their attention to the possibility that Russia’s air defense systems may have been responsible.

National flags were lowered across Azerbaijan, traffic across the country stopped at noon, and signals were sounded from ships and trains as the country observed a nationwide moment of silence.