DUSHANBE, October 9. /TASS/. The crew of the AZAL plane which crashed while flying over Russian skies last December declined an offer to land in Makhachkala, instead deciding to go to their home airport, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev.

"It was also proposed," Putin said, adding that this was registered on the recordings of the black boxes, "to land in Makhachkala, but it (the crew - TASS) decided to return to the home airport, and then to Kazakhstan."

The Embraer 190 passenger plane of Azerbaijan Airlines, flying from Baku to Grozny, crashed on December 25 near the Kazakh city of Aktau. There were 67 people on board - 62 passengers and five crew, including citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. According to the latest data, 29 people survived. There were 16 Russian citizens among the passengers. Nine of them survived, and were taken to Moscow and federal medical institutions.