More than 30 people, 38 in total, died when a plane Azerbaijan crashed today, Wednesday, December 25, near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstanreported Azerbaijani authorities.
Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbaev reported the death toll after meeting with an Azerbaijani official, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Earlier, Azerbaijan’s prosecutor’s office had said that 32 of the 67 people on board had survived.
The plane crashed while en route from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.
Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry said in a statement on Telegram that those on board included five crew members. A total of 29 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalized, the ministry told Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
Another Russian news agency, Interfaxquoted medical workers as saying four bodies had been recovered. Emergency workers, he reported, said Both pilots, according to a preliminary assessment, died in the accident.
What is known about the plane that crashed in Kazakhstan
The Embraer 190 aircraft made an emergency landing 3 kilometers from the city, Azerbaijan Airlines previously said.
Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry initially said 25 people survived the crash, then revised that number to 27, 28 and then 29 as the search and rescue operation at the crash site continued, reducing the alleged death toll.
Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office later reported that at least 32 people survived the crash, adding that the number was not final. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that some of them were in critical condition.
According to Kazakh officials, the plane’s passengers included 42 citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 Russians, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyz citizens, as reported.
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, reported that preliminary information shows that the pilot had decided to divert to Kazakhstan’s Aktau after a bird strike on the plane led to “an emergency situation on board,” according to RIA Novosti.
Mobile phone images circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before crashing to the ground in a fireball. Other images showed part of its fuselage torn from the wings and the rest of the plane, lying face down in the grass. The images corresponded to the colors of the plane and its registration number.
Some of the videos posted on social media showed survivors dragging other passengers away from the wreckage of the plane.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com shows that the aircraft appeared to do a figure-eight near the airport in Aktau, with its altitude rising and falling substantially during the final minutes of the flight before impacting the ground.
FlightRadar24 said separately in an online post that the aircraft had faced “heavy GPS interference” that “caused the aircraft to transmit erroneous ADS-B data,” referring to the information that allows websites to track a flight. Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the region.
In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep the public informed and changed its social media banners to solid black.
Azerbaijan’s state news agency Azertac said an official delegation consisting of Azerbaijan’s emergency situations minister, the country’s deputy prosecutor general and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines had been sent to Aktau to conduct an “investigation into the place”.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who had been traveling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan upon hearing the news of the accident, the president’s press service reported. Aliyev was due to attend an informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet countries founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St. Petersburg.
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media. “It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” he wrote.
He also signed a decree declaring December 26 as a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putinspoke to Aliyev by phone and expressed his condolences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Speaking at the meeting of the group of former Soviet countries in St. Petersburg, Putin also said Russia’s Emergencies Ministry sent a plane with medical equipment and workers to Kazakhstan to help with the aftermath of the crash.
Authorities in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia said They were investigating the accident. Embraer told The Associated Press in a statement that the company is “ready to assist all relevant authorities.”
*Stay up to date with the news, join our WhatsApp channel
OF