Passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashes in Kazakhstan with many feared dead By Reuters
Written by Mariya Gordeyeva
ASTANA (Reuters) – An Embraer passenger plane en route from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday with 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities said, adding that 27 people survived.
An unverified video of the crash showed the plane, which was owned by Azerbaijan Airlines, burst into flames when it hit the ground and billowing black smoke. Bloody and bruised passengers could be seen tripping over a piece of the fuselage that remained intact.
The Central Asian country’s emergency department said in a statement that firefighters extinguished the fire and the survivors, including three children, were treated at a nearby hospital.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190, with flight number J2-8243, was flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but was forced to make an emergency landing about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) away. from Kazakh city. Aktau.
Russian news agencies said the plane was diverted due to fog in Grozny.
Authorities in Kazakhstan say they have begun to look into various aspects of what happened, including a technical problem, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
The Russian Aviation Ministry in a statement says that preliminary information suggests that the pilot decided to make an emergency landing after the bird strike.
After the accident, Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, was returning home from Russia where he had been attending a conference on Wednesday, reported the Russian media RIA.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement, saying that those being treated at the hospital were in a critical condition and that he and others would pray for their speedy recovery.
