Brazil examining black boxes from crashed Russia-bound plane

BRASILIA (AFP) : Brazil has started examining the black box recorders from a Brazilian-made jetliner that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people aboard, the air force said Thursday.

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane, an Embraer 190, crash-landed on Christmas Day as it flew to the Chechen capital Grozny in southern Russia.

The Brazilian air force said in a statement that the data from the recorders would be extracted and analyzed as soon as possible.

These devices captured cockpit dialogue and flight data from the plane. They are being examined by the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center, a unit of the Brazilian air force.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has demanded that Moscow admit it mistakenly fired on the plane as it tried to make a scheduled landing at the Grozny airport.

Russia has not confirmed that one of its air-defense missiles hit the plane, though President Vladimir Putin told Aliyev in a phone call that the systems were active at the time and that he was sorry the incident took place in Russian airspace.

Russia said Grozny was being attacked by Ukrainian drones when the airliner approached to make its landing through thick fog.

Investigators from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia have traveled to Brazil for the investigation, officials said.

The Brazilian air force said Kazakhstan is in charge of releasing the results of the black box analysis.