The wreckage of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane near Aktau, Kazakhstan, on December 27, 2024.Meiramgul Kussainova/Anadolu via Getty ImagesAn Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38.An oxygen tank exploded before the crash, Kazakhstan's transport minister said.The plane was likely hit by Russian air defense before the crash, BI reported Thursday.An oxygen tank on the Azerbaijan Airlines flight exploded before the plane crash, Kazakhstan's transport minister said.It adds a little more detail to the series of events leading to the fiery crash landing of the Embraer 190 on Christmas Day that killed 38.The minister, Marat Karabayev, did not say definitively that the oxygen-tank explosion was a direct cause of the crash.He also did not say why it exploded.