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.

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 Flight 8243 that crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25 was damaged by Russian surface-to-air missiles, Reuters reports citing officials with knowledge of the official investigation.

The flight was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s south, when it diverted and attempted an emergency landing in Kazakhstan.

"No one claims that it was done on purpose," an Azerbaijan official told Reuters. They added their government "expects the Russian side to confess."

The U.S. has intelligence that indicates Russia misidentified an Azerbaijani airliner as a Ukrainian drone and shot it down with an air defense system, according to two military officials.

A passenger jet operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, after diverting from an area of southern Russia where Moscow has repeatedly used air defence systems against Ukrainian attack drones.