More than 30 feared dead as Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan
67 people, including five crew members, were on board the plane
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Your support makes all the difference.At least 30 people are likely to have died in an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, the country’s emergency ministry has said.
The Embraer 190 aircraft, intended for Russia, had at least 62 passengers and five crew members on board, Kazakh authorities announced, confirming that 28 people survived. So far, four bodies have been recovered.
Unverified video footage of the crash showed the plane bursting into flames as it hit the ground, with thick black smoke rising afterwards.
The fire services extinguished the blaze, and survivors are being treated at a nearby hospital, the country’s emergencies ministry said in a statement. The survivors, including two children, were being treated at a nearby hospital, while the bodies of the dead were being recovered, it added.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia‘s Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3km from the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Earlier the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny, reported Russian news agencies.
Commercial aviation-tracking websites monitored the flight as it flew north on its scheduled route along the west coast of the sea before its flight path was no longer recorded. It then reappeared on the opposite, east coast, where it circled near Aktau airport before crashing into the beach.
The Independent has reached out to Azerbaijan Airlines for comment.
Authorities in Kazakhstan said they are investigating the incident and looking into different angles including technical problem, Russia‘s Interfax news agency reported.
The country would also cooperate with the Azerbaijan government in the investigation, said the authorities.
Russia’s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.
President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences as did Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, who decided to return home from Russia where he had been due to attend a summit on Wednesday, his office said.
“Unfortunately, Azerbaijan’s president Aliyev was forced to leave St Petersburg (where he had a summit). Putin has already called him and expressed his condolences in connection with the crash of the Azerbaijani plane in Aktau,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
“We deeply sympathise with those who lost their relatives and friends in this plane crash and wish a speedy recovery to all those who managed to survive.”
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement and said some of those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.
Additional reporting by agencies
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