Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes in Kazakhstan leaving 38 dead

An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard crashed on Dec 25 near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, killing 38 people and leaving 29 survivors, a Kazakh official said.

Russian news agency Interfax quoted Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbaev disclosing the number of dead while meeting with Azerbaijani officials.

The Embraer 190 was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus when it was diverted and attempted an emergency landing 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Aktau, Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement issued soon after the crash.

Speaking at a news conference, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said that the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course.

The incident occurred after the aircraft reportedly requested an emergency landing.

About 29 people are said to have survived the crash, the Kazakhstan ministry said while cautioning the initial number may vary.

Authorities in Kazakhstan have initiated an investigation into various possible causes of the crash, including a potential technical issue, according to the Interfax news agency.

Officials of Russia's aviation watchdog were quoted as saying that preliminary findings indicate the pilot opted for an emergency landing due to a suspected bird strike.

Kazakhstan's emergency ministry confirmed the plane had been diverted to Aktau due to heavy fog in Grozny. The aircraft, belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines, had circled the airport multiple times before the crash.

The country's emergency situations ministry in a statement said its personnel were putting out a fire at the site.

Harrowing moments captured

A passenger aboard the ill-fated flight reportedly recorded footage capturing the harrowing moments before and after the disaster, offering a glimpse of the chaotic scenes inside the aircraft.

The aircraft was supposed to fly northwest from Baku to Grozny but instead flew across the Caspian Sea and went down near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.

The plane's course on the Flight Radar website showed it flying away from its normal route, crossing the Caspian Sea, and then circling over the area where it eventually crashed near Aktau.

In the footage shared by Russian media outlet RT, a passenger was seen bleeding from the head, while another attempted to exit the aircraft.

Another video circulating on social media captured a man praying moments before the crash as sounds of panic and the roar of the plane’s engine fill the background.

Possible bird strike

The Kazakh transport ministry said the plane carried 37 nationals from Azerbaijan, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan, and 16 from Russia.

The incident appears to have been triggered by a bird strike, Azerbaijan Airlines initially said before withdrawing the statement. "We cannot disclose any investigation results at this time," the office of Azerbaijan's prosecutor general said in a statement.

"All possible scenarios are being examined, and the necessary expert analyses are underway," it added.

Images and videos from the crash show the plane plummeting before bursting into flames as it struck the shoreline, followed by a thick plume of black smoke. Bloodied and injured passengers were seen stumbling away from a piece of the plane’s fuselage that had remained intact.

"I'll never forget their look, full of pain and despair," news agency AFP quoted a Kazakh woman as saying, who said she was near where the crashed plane and rushed to the site to help survivors. "A girl pleaded: ‘Save my mother, my mother is back there’," the woman recalled.