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An Azerbaijan Airlines flight carrying 62 passengers and 5 crew members crashed during an emergency landing at a Kazakh airport. 29 survivors, including two children, were taken to hospital.
Video from local media showed a huge explosion after the plane crashed into a clearing. Video from the scene showed passengers climbing out of the rear of the fuselage with the assistance of emergency personnel.
Russian state news agency Riya news agency quoted the Kazakh Transport Ministry as saying that the people on board were from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Local media reported that nine of them were sent to hospital with serious injuries and that search and rescue operations were underway.
The Embraer 190 aircraft was originally scheduled to fly from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in the Chechen Republic of southern Russia, but was diverted to Aktau after flying into heavy fog.
Early media reports said the plane struck a flock of birds, affecting its control.
“After the collision with the birds, due to an emergency on board the aircraft, the captain decided to go to an alternate airport and chose Aktau Airport,” Riya quoted Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia as saying. Local media also shared unconfirmed According to reports, oxygen tanks on the ship exploded, causing many passengers to lose consciousness.
Azerbaijan’s APA news agency said that Baku has sent an official delegation to Kazakhstan to investigate the incident. The country’s President Ilham Aliyev returned to Baku from an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Russia. He expressed his condolences to the affected families.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin also expressed condolences to the Azerbaijani leader.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased on social media. “We pray to the Almighty [the survivors’] recover.
Photos on social media showed relatives gathering at Grozny airport to hear news of their loved ones.
A man at Grozny Airport said he had just received a video in which he could see his nephew surviving the plane crash. “Of course I’m happy,” he told Riya News.
