An An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people on board crashed Wednesday near the Kazakh city of Aktau, killing at least 32 people, officials said. More than 30 people may have died.
The plane was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.
The Ministry of Emergencies of Kazakhstan said in a statement to Telegram that those on the boat included five workers. 29 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalized, the ministry told Russian state media, RIA Novosti.
Another Russian news agency, Interfax, quoted medical workers as saying that four bodies had been recovered and emergency personnel at the scene said that both pilots, according to preliminary investigations, had died in the crash.
The Embraer 190 plane made an emergency landing three kilometers from the city, Azerbaijan Airlines said earlier.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations in Kazakhstan initially said that 25 people survived the accident, later they updated that number to 27, 28, and then 29 as the search and rescue work continues at the accident site, reducing the number of dead.
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Azerbaijan later reported that at least 32 people had survived the crash, adding that the number was not final. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan said in a statement that some of them are in critical condition.
The number of survivors would mean that more than 30 people could die.
According to Kazakh officials, those on board the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russians, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyz citizens.
RIA Novosti quoted Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, as saying that preliminary information indicates that the pilot chose to divert to Aktau in Kazakhstan after a bird attack on the plane led to an “emergency”.
Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the plane making a descent before crashing to the ground in a fireball. Some pictures show part of its fuselage torn from the wings and the rest of the plane, lying face up in the grass. The images were consistent with the aircraft’s colors and registration number.
Some videos posted on social media show survivors dragging other passengers from the wreckage of the plane.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed that the plane made what appeared to be a right-hand yaw as it approached Aktau Airport, its altitude rising and falling dramatically in the final minutes of the flight before touching down.
FlightRadar24 separately said on its website that the plane had experienced “GPS jamming” which caused the “plane to transmit negative ADS-B data”, referring to the information that allows aircraft tracking websites to track planes in flight. Russia has been accused in the past of interfering with GPS transmissions over a wide area.
In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public informed and change its social media banners to black.
Azerbaijan’s Azertac news agency said an official team including Azerbaijan’s emergency minister, the country’s deputy general prosecutor and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines had been sent to Aktau to conduct an “on-site investigation”.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who was on a trip to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan when he heard the news of the accident, the press service of the president said. Aliyev was due to attend an informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, an organization of former Soviet states established after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St.
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media. “It is with great sadness that I offer my condolences to the families of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” he wrote.
He also signed a declaration announcing December 26 as a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Aliyev on the phone and expressed his condolences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Speaking at the CIS meeting in St.
Authorities in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia say they are investigating the crash. Embraer told The Associated Press in a statement that the company is “ready to assist all relevant authorities.”
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