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At least 32 people survived after an Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people on board crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday, officials said. More than 30 people could be killed.
The plane was on its way from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, a Russian city in the North Caucasus.
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a Telegram statement that the crew included five crew members. The ministry told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that a total of 29 survivors, including two children, were hospitalized.
Another Russian news agency, Interfax, reported that four bodies had been recovered, citing medical workers, and that preliminary assessments indicated that the two pilots died in the crash, citing paramedics at the scene. .
Azerbaijan Airlines earlier announced that an Embraer 190 plane made an emergency landing 3 kilometers from the city.
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergencies initially announced that 25 people survived the crash, but later revised that number to 27, then 28 after continued search and rescue operations at the crash site reduced the expected death toll. people, and revised to 29 people.
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 serious condition.
Based on the number of survivors, more than 30 people could die.
Kazakh officials said there were 42 Azerbaijani nationals, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakh nationals and three Kyrgyz nationals on board.
RIA Novosti News Agency quoted Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia as saying that the pilot had previously chosen to divert to Aktau, Kazakhstan, after a bird strike on the aircraft caused an “onboard emergency situation.” I was told that this was indicated in the information.
Mobile phone footage circulating online showed the plane plummeting before crashing to the ground in a fireball. Other footage showed parts of the fuselage torn off the wings and the rest of the plane lying upside down in the grass. The images corresponded to the plane’s color and registration number.
Videos posted on social media showed survivors pulling passengers from the plane’s wreckage.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com shows the aircraft making what appeared to be a right turn as it approached Aktau’s airport, gaining and losing altitude significantly over the final minutes of the flight before impacting the ground. Ta.
Separately, FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the aircraft encountered “strong GPS jamming” and that “the aircraft transmitted fraudulent ADS-B data,” allowing flight tracking websites to track the aircraft during the flight. I mentioned the information to make it so. Russia has been accused in the past of interfering with GPS communications in the wider region.
Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement that it would keep the public informed and change its social media banners to solid black.
Azerbaijan’s state news agency Azertaq announced that an official delegation consisting of Azerbaijan’s Minister of Emergency Situations, the country’s deputy prosecutor general and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines was sent to Aktau to carry out “on-site investigations”.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who was visiting Russia, returned to Azerbaijan after hearing the news of the crash, according to the presidential press office. Aliyev was scheduled to attend an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet states established 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. “With deep sadness, I extend my condolences to the families of the victims and pray for the speedy recovery of the injured,” he wrote.
He also signed a decree declaring December 26 as a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Aliyev by phone and expressed his condolences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Speaking at the CIS conference in St. Petersburg, Putin also said that Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations had sent a plane with equipment and medical personnel to Kazakhstan to assist in the aftermath of the crash.
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russian authorities said they were investigating the crash. Embraer issued a statement to The Associated Press saying the company is “ready to assist all relevant authorities.”
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