In videos published by Russian media, we see the plane hit the ground and a gigantic fire immediately breaks out. An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed on Wednesday, December 25, in western Kazakhstan, with 67 people on board, authorities announced. Some of them survived: there are 32 survivors according to the latest report from the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office. The front of the aircraft was completely destroyed according to other images, which show the plane on the ground, partially charred.
The aircraft, an Embraer 190, was flying between Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, and Grozny, capital of the Russian Caucasian republic of Chechnya, according to Azerbaijan Airlines. It crashed near the city of Aktau, a Caspian port in western Kazakhstan, according to the Kazakh Emergency Situations Ministry, which said that “the plane caught fire” after the crash and dispatched 150 rescuers to the scene. According to the Flightradar24 service, which tracks the movement of planes in real time, the aircraft crossed the Caspian Sea, deviating from its normal route, before circling above the area where it crashed. .
Azerbaijan Airlines initially claimed that the plane had hit a flock of birds, before withdrawing this information. “We cannot disclose the results of the investigation at this time. All possible scenarios are being examined, and the necessary expertise is underway,” underlined the Azerbaijani General Prosecutor's Office, specifying that a team of Azerbaijani investigators visited Kazakhstan and “works on site“. For its part, the Ministry of the Interior of Kazakhstan announced the opening of an investigation for “violation of the rules of safety and operation of air transport.”
Azerbaijan Airlines said 62 passengers and five crew members were on board the plane which “made an emergency landing” about three kilometers from Aktau. “According to initial information, there were 37 Azerbaijani nationals, six Kazakh nationals, three Kyrgyz citizens and 16 Russian citizens” on board the aircraft, said the Kazakh Transport Ministry.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who arrived in Russia to participate in an informal summit with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, decided to interrupt his visit and urgently return to Azerbaijan, according to the press service of the Azerbaijani presidency. The Russian president also expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, according to the Kremlin. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov assured him, on Telegram, “pray to God for healing” injured people.
