An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people on board crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday, leaving 38 people dead and 29 alive, Kazakh officials said.
Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Vozunbayev disclosed the figure during a meeting with Azerbaijani officials, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 was en route 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.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told a news conference that it was too early to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said the weather had forced the plane to deviate from its planned course.
“According to the information provided to me, the plane changed course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions, headed for Aktau airport and crashed on landing,” he said.
Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviasia said preliminary information indicated the pilots diverted to Aktau after a collision with a bird caused an emergency situation on board.
Kazakh officials said there were 42 Azerbaijani nationals, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakh nationals and three Kyrgyz nationals on board. Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office previously announced that 32 of the 67 passengers and crew in the crash survived, but told reporters that number was not final.
The Associated Press could not immediately reconcile the difference in the number of survivors announced by officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
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.
Video posted on social media showed survivors pulling passengers from the wreckage.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com shows the aircraft appearing in a figure-eight pattern as it approached Aktau’s airport, gaining and dropping significantly in altitude over the final minutes of the flight before impacting the ground. Masu.
Separately, FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the plane encountered “strong GPS jamming” which resulted in “the aircraft transmitting fraudulent ADS-B data” and that flight tracking websites tracked the plane as it was flying. I mentioned the information that would allow me to track it. Russia has been accused in the past of interfering with GPS communications in the wider region.
Azerbaijan Airlines said it would continue to keep the public informed and changed its social media banners to solid black. It also announced the suspension of 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 completed.
Azerbaijan’s state news agency Azertaq said that an official delegation of Azerbaijan’s Minister of Emergency Situations, Deputy Prosecutor General and Vice President of Azerbaijan Aviation was sent to Aktau to carry out “on-site investigations”.
According to the presidential press office, Aliyev was traveling to Russia but returned to Azerbaijan after hearing the news of the crash. He was scheduled to attend an informal summit in St. Petersburg of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet states created after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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.”
