An Azerbaijani minister suggested Friday that an airliner that crashed this week was hit by a weapon, citing expert analysis and survivor testimony indicating that the plane was struck from the outside.

Sources told Reuters the plane had been hit by Russian fire. "It was as if it was drunk - not the same plane anymore," one passenger recalled.

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.

An Azerbaijan Airlines statement on Dec. 27 blamed “interference” for the Christmas Day plane crash that killed 38 people.

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.

NBC News' Daniele Hamamdjian reports on the ongoing investigation into the Azerbaijan plane crash in Kazakhstan and a survivor's recollection of hearing a loud bang in the aircraft before it crashed.

Thirty-eight of 67 onboard flight from Baku to the Chechen city Grozny believed to have been killed. Russian authorities cite bird strike.

Azerbaijan held a day of mourning on Thursday for the dozens of victims of an airliner crash in Kazakhstan, as questions were being asked over the cause of the disaster.