Azerbaijan Airlines has announced that its plane that crashed during an ill-fated flight from Azerbaijan to Russia that killed 38 people on Wednesday suffered external and technical impact, according to preliminary results.

Citing early reports, the airline blamed the crash of the Embraer jet, which was carrying more than 60 passengers and crew members from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny, on “physical and technical external interference”.

The airline did not provide further details about the nature of the physical and technical interference the plane had suffered amid speculation in the media that it was downed by Russian air defence missiles as it was flying over Russian airspace.

Flight attendant Zulfuqar Asadov, who was among 29 survivors on the crashed plane, told local media that the plane was “hit by some kind of external strike. The impact of it caused panic inside.”

“We tried to calm them down, to get them seated. At that moment, there was another strike, and my arm was injured,” he added.

According to witnesses, the plane had originally tried to land at Grozny airport in southern Russia but was diverted across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan following an explosion before it eventually crashed and burst into flames at high speed 3km from Aktau airport runway.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan Airlines has announced on social media that it was suspending flights to seven Russian cities in response to the crash “for security reasons”.