Kazakhistan: An Azerbaijani airliner has crashed in the Kazakhstani city of Aktau. Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry said that over 30 people are feared dead and four bodies have been recovered so far.
It also added that at over 32 people survived the crash and 29 of them have been hospitalised.
The ministry confirmed in a Telegram statement on Wednesday that 67 people, including five crew, were on board the plane. Russian news agency Interfax cited the ministry as saying there may be more survivors.
It also cited the emergency workers at the scene as saying that both pilots, according to a preliminary assessment, died in the crash.
“A plane doing the Baku-Grozny route crashed near the city of Aktau. It belongs to Azerbaijan Airlines,” the Kazakh transport ministry said on Telegram. It said the plane “made an emergency landing” around three kilometres (1.9 miles) from Aktau.
Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the Embraer 190 aircraft had 62 passengers and five crew on board. The Kazakh transport ministry said that of the plane’s passengers, 37 were from Azerbaijan, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan and 16 from Russia.
Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry initially said 25 people survived the crash, later revising that number to 27 and then to 28 as the search and rescue operation continued at the site of the crash, bringing the supposed death toll down.
The health ministry said a special flight was being sent from the Kazakh capital Astana with specialist doctors to treat the injured.
Local health officials earlier said 14 survivors had been taken to the regional hospital, with five put in intensive care.
The plane was originally scheduled to travel from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.
A spokesperson for Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said that preliminary information showed that the pilot had chosen to divert to Aktau after a bird strike on the aircraft led to “an emergency situation on board.”
Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball. Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft, lying upside in the grass. The footage corresponded to the plane’s colors and its registration number.
Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure-right once nearing the airport in Aktau, its altitude moving up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight before impacting the ground.
FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post 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.
Notably, Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.
Embraer did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday morning.
In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev 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’s office said “The President ordered the prompt initiation of urgent measures to investigate the causes of the disaster.”
Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also the country’s first 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.
Azerbaijan’s state news agency, Azertac, informed that an official delegation consisting of Azerbaijan’s emergency situations minister, the country’s deputy general prosecutor, and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines had been dispatched to Aktau to conduct an on-site investigation.
