An Azerbaijani passenger plane with 67 people on board crashed on Wednesday near the Kazakh city of Aktau, killing 38 people and leaving 29 survivors, a Kazakh official said.
Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbaev revealed the figures during a meeting with Azerbaijani officials, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
The Embraer 190 was headed from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus when it diverted and attempted an emergency landing 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Aktau, Azerbaijan Airlines said. .
At a news conference, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said it was too early to speculate on the reasons for the crash, but said the weather had forced the plane to change its planned course.
“The information I have been given is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he said.
Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said preliminary information showed the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird strike caused an onboard emergency.
The wreckage of the Kazakhstan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the ground near the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, December 25, 2024.
AP Photo/Azamat Sarsenbayev
According to Kazakh officials, those traveling on the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, six Kazakh nationals and three citizens of Kyrgyzstan. Azerbaijan's prosecutor general's office had previously said that 32 of the 67 people on board had survived the crash, but told reporters the figure was not final. The Associated Press could not immediately reconcile the difference between survivor numbers given by officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
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Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the plane making a steep descent before crashing to the ground in a fireball. Other images showed part of the fuselage torn from the wings and the rest of the plane, face down on 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 out of the rubble.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed that the plane made what appeared to be a figure to the right once it approached Aktau Airport, and its altitude rose and fell substantially during the final minutes of the flight before impact. the ground.
FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post that the plane had faced “strong GPS interference,” which “caused the plane to transmit incorrect ADS-B data,” referring to information that allows tracking websites flights follow planes in flight. Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions throughout the region.
In this photo taken from a video released by the Mangystau region administration, the wreckage of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the ground near the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, December 25, 2024.
The administration of the Mangystau region via AP
Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep the public informed and changed its banners on social media 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 crash is concluded.
Azerbaijan's state news agency Azertac said an official delegation of Azerbaijan's emergency situations minister, deputy prosecutor general and vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines were sent to Aktau to conduct an “on-site investigation.”
Aliyev, who was traveling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan upon hearing the news of the accident, according to the president's press service. He 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 deepest 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 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Aliyev by phone and expressed his condolences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Speaking at the CIS meeting in St. Petersburg, Putin also said that Russia's Emergencies Ministry sent a plane with medical equipment and workers to Kazakhstan to help with the aftermath of the accident.
Authorities in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia said they were investigating the crash. Embraer told The Associated Press in a statement that the company is “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.
© 2024 The Canadian Press