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 Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft crashed near Kazakhstan's Aktau Airport on Wednesday morning, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, Kazakh officials said.

Airlines are avoiding Russian airspace after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed on Wednesday, killing 38 passengers. The Embraer 190 jet was bound for Russia from Azerbaijan — but veered off course after sustaining some kind of damage over Russia. It managed to reach Aktau airport in Kazakhstan before crash-landing. 29 passengers survived.