A passenger plane carrying 67 people from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, leaving dozens of people feared dead, authorities said.
There were 62 passengers and five crew members on board the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergencies said in a Telegram post. The country’s Ministry of Health later published a list of 29 survivors, including two children.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport, that the passengers were 37 Azerbaijani nationals, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakh nationals, and three Kyrgyz nationals.
The flight was on its way from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny in Russia’s Chechnya region, a Grozny airport news agency told Russia’s state news agency, but fog meant the flight was on its way from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grozny, Russia’s Chechen region, about 160 miles east of Grozny. The destination was changed to the city of Makhachkala. News agency TASS.
The Embraer 190 plane made an emergency landing about 2.9 miles from the city of Aktau, Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement on Telegram.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the plane collided with a bird and was diverted to Aktau due to an emergency situation on board, Russian aviation authority Rosavyatsa said in a statement on Telegram.
Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement on Telegram that the investigation is ongoing and further information regarding the incident will be provided.
A fire broke out at the crash site, but Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry said it had been “completely extinguished.”
It added that a total of 150 personnel and 45 pieces of equipment were involved in the emergency response.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin called Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to express his condolences.
“We deeply sympathize with those who lost loved ones in this plane crash and wish the survivors a speedy recovery,” Peskov said, adding that Aliyev was forced to leave St. Petersburg after the accident. added.
Aliyev declared December 26 as Azerbaijan’s national day of mourning.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased passengers in a post on his Telegram account on Wednesday morning.
