Moscow — An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 folks on board crashed Wednesday in western Kazakhstan, close to the town of Aktau, killing 38 folks and leaving 29 survivors, a Kazakh official mentioned.
Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbaev disclosed the figures whereas assembly with Azerbaijani officers, the Russian information company Interfax reported.
Azerbaijan Airways mentioned 67 folks have been on board — 62 passengers and 5 crew members. Interfax quoted emergency staff on the scene as saying a preliminary evaluation confirmed each pilots died within the crash.
Azamat Sarsenbayev / REUTERS
The Embraer 190 plane tried to make an emergency touchdown roughly two miles from Aktau, Azerbaijan Airways mentioned. Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, mentioned that preliminary info confirmed that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a chook strike led to an emergency on board.
The aircraft was initially scheduled to journey from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian metropolis of Grozny within the North Caucasus. Russian information businesses mentioned the aircraft had been rerouted because of fog in Grozny, Reuters reported.
Talking at a information convention, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev mentioned that it was too quickly to invest on the explanations behind the crash, however mentioned that the climate had compelled the aircraft to vary from its deliberate course.
“The knowledge supplied to me is that the aircraft modified its course between Baku and Grozny because of worsening climate situations and headed to Aktau airport, the place it crashed upon touchdown,” he mentioned.
Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry initially mentioned 25 folks survived the crash, later revising that quantity to 27, 28 after which 29 because the search and rescue operation continued on the web site of the crash, bringing the obvious dying toll down.
Based on Kazakh officers, these aboard the aircraft included 42 Azerbaijani residents, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals. Azerbaijan’s prosecutor normal’s workplace beforehand mentioned that 32 of the 67 folks on board had survived the crash, however instructed journalists that the quantity wasn’t remaining.
The Related Press couldn’t instantly reconcile the distinction between the numbers of survivors given by Kazakhstan and Azerbaijani officers.
Murat Usubali / Anadolu through Getty Photographs
Interfax reported that Kazakh authorities mentioned they’d began probing doable causes of the crash, together with a technical downside, in response to Reuters.
Cell phone footage circulating on-line appeared to point out the plane making a steep descent earlier than smashing into the bottom in a fireball. Crews put out the blaze on the web site, the emergency ministry mentioned.
Different footage confirmed a part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the remainder of the plane mendacity upside within the grass. The footage corresponded to the aircraft’s colours and its registration quantity.
Among the movies posted on social media confirmed survivors dragging fellow passengers away from the aircraft’s wreckage.
Unverified video confirmed folks stumbling from a bit of the fuselage that remained intact, Reuters reported.
Flight-tracking information from FlightRadar24.com confirmed the plane making what seemed to be a figure-eight because it neared the airport in Aktau, its altitude shifting up and down considerably during the last minutes of the flight earlier than impacting the bottom.
FlightRadar24 individually mentioned in an internet publish that the plane had confronted “robust GPS jamming” which ” made the plane transmit unhealthy ADS-B information,” referring to the knowledge that allows flight-tracking web sites to observe planes in flight. Russia has been blamed up to now for jamming GPS transmissions within the wider area.
Embraer instructed The Related Press in a press release that the corporate is “prepared to help all related authorities.”
In a press release, Azerbaijan Airways mentioned it could hold members of the general public up to date and adjusted its social media banners to strong black. It additionally mentioned that it could droop flights between Baku and Grozny, in addition to between Baku and the town of Makhachkala in Russia’s North Caucasus, till its investigation into the crash has been concluded.
When reached by CBS Information, a Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson mentioned that the White Home had seen the media studies of the crash and referred CBS Information “to Azerbaijani and Kazakhstani officers because the investigation continues.”
Azerbaijan’s state information company, Azertac, mentioned that an official delegation of Azerbaijan’s emergency conditions minister, the deputy normal prosecutor and the vp of Azerbaijan Airways have been despatched to Aktau to conduct an “on-site investigation.”
Aliyev, who was touring to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan on listening to information of the crash, the president’s press service mentioned. He was because of attend a casual assembly of leaders of the Commonwealth of Impartial States, a bloc of former Soviet international locations based after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St. Petersburg.
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the households of the victims in a press release on social media. “It’s with deep unhappiness that I specific my condolences to the households of the victims and want a speedy restoration to these injured,” he wrote.
He additionally signed a decree declaring Dec. 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
