A survivor of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, hit by a Russian missile, recalls an explosion near her leg as the plane struggled to land in Grozny before crash landing in Kazakhstan

A survivor of Wednesday’s Azerbaijan Airlines crash said the plane’s pilots tried to land in Grozny, Chechnya three times, followed by an explosion outside the plane, according to an audio recording shared by Russian TV channel RT.

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.

The U.S. officials added that if the preliminary information proves to be true, it would further underscore Russian recklessness in its invasion of Ukraine.