This is like MH17? A passenger plane was shot down

Namely, videos surfaced on social networks showing large holes in the plane, which led to speculation that the plane might have been hit by an anti-aircraft missile.

Let's recall that an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed on Wednesday morning in the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 passengers on board the Embraer 190.

The plane was on its way to Grozny. Euronews has received information from official sources connected to the crash investigation, which state that the surviving passengers, while approaching the Russian city of Grozny, heard an explosion followed by what appeared to be shrapnel that hit the plane and damaged the fuselage.

The information obtained by Euronews coincides with a report by Azerbaijan-based international news channel AnewZ, which quotes a Russian military blogger as claiming that "the damage to the aircraft suggests that the aircraft may have been accidentally hit by an air defense missile system".

The Chechen capital of Grozny is said to be heavily defended, as Chechnya and Ramzan Kadyrov's fighters remain key to the Kremlin in Russia's ongoing invasion of its western neighbor, making the Chechen capital a potential target for Ukrainian drones.

If it is confirmed that the Azerbaijani plane was shot down, the incident would be correlated with the downing of MH17 in 2014 by Russian-backed forces in the Donbass.

Azerbaijan's chief prosecutor's office previously said that 32 of the 67 people on the plane survived. However, the latest death toll brings the number of survivors down to 29.

Kazakhstan's Emergencies Ministry initially said 25 people had survived the crash, later changing the number to 27, 28 and 29 as search and rescue operations continued at the crash site. All survivors, including two children, were hospitalized.

• Dramatic footage: The number of survivors is growing; People are pulled out of the crashed plane VIDEO

As reported by Azerbaijan Airlines, 37 passengers were citizens of Azerbaijan. There were also 16 citizens of Russia, six citizens of Kazakhstan and three citizens of Kyrgyzstan.

Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed the plane made what appeared to be a figure eight as it approached Aktau Airport. Its altitude moved up and down significantly during the last minutes of the flight before it hit the ground.

Separately, FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the plane faced "strong GPS jamming," which "caused the plane to transmit poor ADS-B data," citing information that allows flight-tracking websites to track planes in flight.

Social media footage collected by AnwZ news channel appears to show the aircraft struggling to make an emergency landing and disintegrating in a ball of fire as it hits the ground.

Speaking at a news conference, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash, but said weather had forced the plane to change its planned course.

"The information I received is that the plane changed course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed on landing," he said.