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Aircraft carrying 62 passengers and five crew was en route from Baku to Grozny in Chechnya
Twenty-nine people have survived after a passenger plane operated by Azerbaijan Airlines burst into flames as it crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after veering hundreds of miles off its planned route.
The flight was carrying 62 passengers and five crew members with 38 killed in the crash, according to Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister, Kanat Bozumbayev.
Kazakh authorities said the survivors, believed to include two children, were being treated in a nearby hospital. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said some were in critical condition.
The plane was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny in Chechnya. A preliminary assessment suggested that both pilots had died in the crash, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Unverified video of the crash appeared to show the plane bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick, black plumes of smoke rising. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.
More than 50 rescuers rushed to the scene, managing to extinguish a fire at the crash site. Kazakh officials later said more than 150 emergency workers were at the scene, while the health ministry said a flight carrying specialist doctors was being sent from Astana, the capital, to treat the injured.
The plane had crashed hundreds of miles off its scheduled route on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea, after what Russia’s aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
Officials did not explain why the plane had crossed the sea, but Reuters noted that the crash occurred shortly after drone strikes hit southern Russia. Drone activity has shut airports in the area in the past and the nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning, Reuters added.
Kazakhstan’s main transport prosecutor, Timur Suleimenov, told a briefing in Astana that the plane’s black box, which contains flight data to help determine the cause of a crash, had been found, Interfax reported.
Russian news agencies said the plane had been flying from Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, but had been rerouted because of fog in Grozny.
Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the Embraer 190 had made an emergency landing about 2 miles (3km) from Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.
“Today is a tragic day for AZAL,” the airline said on social media. “We extend our deepest condolences with profound sorrow to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew members who lost their lives in the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft near the city of Aktau.”
It said those onboard, according to preliminary information, included 37 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, six Kazakh citizens, and three Kyrgyz citizens.
The airline said it had set up a hotline for family members of those on the flight, adding that, in contrast to reports from the scene, there were no children among the passengers.
Hours after the crash, Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general’s Office said it had opened a criminal investigation.
Authorities in Kazakhstan also said a government commission had been set up to investigate what had happened, with members of the commission to fly to the site and ensure that families of those on the flight were getting help. Kazakhstan would cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation, the government said.
Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground.
Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft, lying upside down in the grass. The footage corresponded to the plane’s colours and its registration number.
There was speculation in Russian media that the plane could have been shot down by Russian air defences, which mistook it for a Ukrainian drone.
The Fighterbomber Telegram channel, believed to be run by Capt Ilya Tumanov of the Russian army, released a clip showing what appeared to be holes, which some suggested resembled the kind of damage caused by shelling or an explosion with shrapnel.
Fighterbomber said it was unlikely that the holes were caused by a bird strike.
Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure-eight as it neared the airport in Aktau, its altitude moving up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight.
In a separate post FlightRadar24 said online that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming” which “made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data”, referring to the 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.
Following news of the crash, Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, cut short a visit to Russia where he had been due to attend an informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of former Soviet nations, his office said in a statement.
Aliyev later signed a decree declaring 26 December to be a day of mourning in Azerbaijan. “It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” he wrote on social media.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, had spoken to Aliyev after the crash.
“Unfortunately, Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev was forced to leave St Petersburg [where he had a summit]. Putin has already called him and expressed his condolences in connection with the crash of the Azerbaijani plane in Aktau,” said Peskov.
“We deeply sympathise with those who lost their relatives and friends in this plane crash and wish a speedy recovery to all those who managed to survive.”
Azerbaijan’s first lady, Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also the country’s vice-president, said she was “deeply saddened by the news of the tragic loss of lives in the plane crash near Aktau”.
“I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. Wishing them strength and patience! I also wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” she said on Instagram.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement and said those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.
