The Kazakh authorities are examining the information in one of the plane's flight recorders, a so-called black box. According to international aviation practice, such data should be submitted no later than 30 days after the accident occurred – in this case, no later than Friday.
Kazakhstan's Vice Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbajev announces at a press conference that there have been "difficulties" in preparing a report. He says, among other things, that all voices heard must be fully identified.
We hope that the preliminary part will be able to be published next week, he says.
The plane from Azerbaijan Airlines suffered significant damage when it was about to land in Grozny in Chechnya on December 25. It was then not allowed to land and was referred to Kazakhstan on the other side of the Caspian Sea, where it crashed. 38 of the 67 people on board were killed.
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has said that Russia shot down the plane and has accused the Kremlin of trying to cover it up. Russia's Vladimir Putin has apologized for the "tragic event" in Russian airspace, without acknowledging any Russian responsibility for it.
