Russian air defenses downed an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people, four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster said on Thursday. Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of southern Russia, where Moscow has repeatedly used air defense systems against Ukrainian drone strikes. The Embraer passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea. It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian after what Russia's aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike. Officials did not explain why it had crossed the sea.

Fox News Flash top headlines for Dec. 7 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com The U.S. military believes the unarmed drone that went missing over the Libyan capital last month was actually shot down by Russian air defenses. The U.S. Africa Command is demanding the return of the aircraft's wreckage, which had been part of an operation conducted in Libya to assess the area's security and monitor for violent extremist activity. The command didn't give a reason for the drone loss after the Nov. 21 incident, but they had been investigating, Reuters reported.