An Azerbaijani passenger plane with 67 people on board crashed on Wednesday near the Kazakh city of Aktau, killing 38 people and leaving 29 others alive, according to what a Kazakh official announced.
Russian Interfax news agency reported that Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev revealed these numbers during his meeting with Azerbaijani officials.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 plane was on its way from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus when its course was diverted and it attempted an emergency landing three kilometers (1.8 miles) from Aktau.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, in a press conference, that it was too early to speculate on the causes of the accident, but he said that the weather forced the plane to change its planned route.
He added: “The information available to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to bad weather conditions and headed to Aktau Airport, where it crashed upon landing.”
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rozavyatsia, said preliminary information showed that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird collision led to an emergency on board.
The wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 190 lies on the ground near Aktau Airport, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, December 25, 2024.
AFP Photos/Azamat Sarsenbayev
According to Kazakh officials, those on board the plane were 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, six Kazakhstani citizens, and three Kyrgyz citizens. The Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Office had previously said that 32 out of 67 people on board the plane survived the accident, but told reporters that the number was not final. The Associated Press could not immediately reconcile the numbers of survivors provided by Kazakh and Azerbaijani officials.
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Mobile phone footage circulated on the Internet showed the plane landing hard before crashing into the ground in the form of a fireball. Other footage showed part of the plane’s fuselage torn from the wings and the rest of the plane lying upside down in the grass. The footage matched the plane’s colors and registration number.
Some videos posted on social media showed survivors pulling other passengers away from the wreckage.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed that the plane taxied correctly once it approached the airport in Aktau, and its altitude moved up and down significantly during the final minutes of the flight before hitting the ground.
FlightRadar24 said separately in an online post that the plane experienced “strong GPS jamming,” which “caused the plane to transmit poor ADS-B data,” referring to information that allows flight tracking websites to follow planes in flight. Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.
In this photo from a video released by the Mangystau District Administration, the wreckage of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 is seen on the ground near Aktau Airport, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, December 25, 2024.
Mangystau District Administration via AP
Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black. It also said it would suspend flights between Baku and Grozny, as well as between Baku and the city of Makhachkala in Russia’s North Caucasus, until the investigation into the incident is completed.
The official Azerbaijani news agency AZERTAC said that an official delegation including the Azerbaijani Minister of Emergency Situations, the Deputy Prosecutor General and the Deputy President of Azerbaijan Airlines was sent to Aktau to conduct a “field investigation.”
The president’s press office said that Aliyev, who was traveling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan upon hearing news of the incident. He was scheduled to attend an informal meeting of leaders 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 posted on social media. He wrote: “It is with great sadness that I extend my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured.”
He also signed a decree declaring December 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Aliyev and expressed his condolences.
Speaking during the CIS meeting in St. Petersburg, Putin also said that Russia’s Emergencies Ministry had sent a plane carrying equipment and medical personnel to Kazakhstan to help following the incident.
Kazakh, Azerbaijani and Russian authorities said they were investigating the incident. Embraer told The Associated Press in a statement that the company “stands ready to assist all relevant authorities.”
Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
