Russia’s aviation chief says that a Ukrainian drone attack was under way in the region of Chechnya at the time an Azerbaijani airliner attempted to land before diverting to Kazakhstan and crashing there.

Azerbaijan's flag carrier announced Friday that it will suspend flights to several Russian airports, citing potential flight safety risks after a crash of one of its planes that many experts blamed on Russian air defense fire.

The Russian authorities are trying to conceal the fact of a drone attack on Chechnya. This attack may be connected to the crash of a passenger aircraft in Kazakhstan, according to Agentstvo.Novosti on Telegram.

After an Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed in Kazakhstan, speculation mounted about why the plane went down and whether possible Russian air defense action may have played a role.

A survivor of Wednesday’s Azerbaijan Airlines crash said the plane’s pilots tried to land in Grozny, Chechnya three times, followed by an explosion outside the plane, according to an audio recording shared by Russian TV channel RT.

Footage shows survivors walking and being dragged away from the tail section of a crashed Azerbaijan Airlines plane. Wednesday's flight from Baku to Grozny in the Russian republic of Chechnya was diverted across the Caspian Sea and went down near the western Kazakhstan city of Aktau.

It comes as the head of Russia's civil aviation agency says the situation in Grozny, the plane's destination, was "very complicated" at the time.

Thursday is an official day of mourning in Azerbaijan as an investigation is underway to determine what caused an airplane carrying 67 passengers to crash on Christmas Day in Kazakhstan, killing 38 and leaving at least 29 survivors.