Dozens had been feared lifeless Wednesday after a passenger airplane carrying 67 individuals from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed in Kazakhstan, authorities stated.
The Azerbaijan Airways flight, which crashed close to Aktau, a metropolis in southwestern Kazakhstan, had 62 passengers and 5 crew members on board, Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry stated in a submit on Telegram. The Kazakh Well being Ministry later printed a listing of 29 survivors, together with two kids.
The Russian state information company Ria Novosti reported that the passengers had been 37 Azerbaijani residents, 16 Russians, 6 Kazakh residents and three Kyrgyz residents, citing the Kazakh Transport Ministry.
Emergency specialists work on the crash web site.
The flight was en route from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in Russia’s Chechnya area however was diverted to the Russian metropolis of Makhachkala, about 100 miles east of Gronzny, due to fog, the press service of the Grozny airport informed the Russian state information company Tass.
The Embraer 190 plane made an emergency touchdown roughly 1.8 miles away from town of Aktau, in accordance with a press release launched on Telegram by Azerbaijan Airways.
A preliminary investigation discovered the airplane collided with birds and was diverted to Aktau due to an emergency on board, in accordance with a press release issued on Telegram by Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsia.
The investigation is ongoing and extra info concerning the incident will probably be supplied, Azerbaijan Airways stated in a press release launched on Telegram.
There was a fireplace on the crash web site however this has been “utterly extinguished,” the Kazakh Emergencies Ministry stated.
It added {that a} whole of 150 personnel and 45 items of kit had been concerned within the emergency response.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin had referred to as his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, to precise his condolences.
“We deeply sympathize with those that misplaced their family members on this air crash, and want a speedy restoration to those that survived,” Peskov stated, including that Aliyev had been compelled to depart St. Petersburg the place he had been as a consequence of attend a summit.
Aliyev declared Dec. 26 a nationwide day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his condolences to the households of the deceased passengers in a submit on his Telegram account Wednesday morning.
This text was initially printed on NBCNews.com
