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Dozens of passengers are feared dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, reports say.
The Embraer 190 passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia had 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced, stating that 32 survivors had been rescued.
Flight J2-8243 had deviated hundreds of miles from its scheduled route to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. Authorities did not immediately explain why he had crossed the sea, but the accident occurred shortly after. drone attacks hit southern Russia. Drone activity has closed airports in the area in the past and the closest Russian airport in the plane’s flight path was closed Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, Russia’s aviation watchdog said it was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
MORE THAN 30 DEAD IN BRAZIL BUS AND TRUCK CRASH
In this photo taken from a video released by the Mangystau region administration, the wreckage of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the ground near the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, December 25, 2024. (Mangystau region administration/AP Photo)
Among those traveling on the plane were 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, six Kazakh citizens and three Kyrgyz nationals, according to Kazakh officials.
Russian news agency Interfax reported that both pilots died in the crash, citing a preliminary assessment by emergency workers at the scene. The news agency also cited medical workers as saying that four bodies had been recovered from the accident so far.
A total of 29 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalized, the ministry told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, the Associated Press reported. The whereabouts of many passengers have not yet been accounted for.
More than 30 people are feared dead following the accident near the Kazakh city of Aktau. (Azamat Sarsenbayev/AP Photo)
Video of the crash showed the plane descending rapidly before bursting into flames when it hit the seashore, and then thick black smoke rose, Reuters reported. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen falling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who was traveling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan upon hearing the news of the accident, the president’s press service reported. Aliyev was due to attend an informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet countries founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St. Petersburg.
Emergency teams at the crash site of the Azerbaijani plane on December 25, 2024. (Azamat Sarsenbayev/AP Photo)
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media.
“It is with deep sadness that I express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” he wrote.
He also signed a decree declaring December 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
The plane was headed from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus, the Associated Press reports. (Mangystau region administration/AP Photo)
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In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep the public informed and changed its banners on social media to solid black.
“We ask God for mercy for the passengers and crew members who lost their lives,” translates a statement about X said. “Your pain is our pain. We wish the injured a speedy recovery.”
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
