Dozens of passengers are feared lifeless after an Azerbaijan Airways flight crashed close to the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, reviews say.
The Embraer 190 passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia had 62 passengers and 5 crew on board, Kazakh authorities introduced, saying 32 survivors had been rescued.
Flight J2-8243 had flown a whole lot of miles off its scheduled path to crash on the alternative shore of the Caspian Sea. Officers didn’t instantly clarify why it had crossed the ocean, however the crash got here shortly after drone strikes hit southern Russia. Drone exercise has shut airports within the space prior to now and the closest Russian airport on the airplane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
Russia’s aviation watchdog, in the meantime, mentioned it was an emergency which will have been brought on by a fowl strike.
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On this picture taken from a video launched by the administration of Mangystau area, the wreckage of Azerbaijan Airways Embraer 190 lies on the bottom close to the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (The Administration of Mangystau Area/AP Photograph)
These aboard the airplane included 42 Azerbaijani residents, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani residents, in line with Kazakhstani officers.
Russian information company Interfax reported that each pilots died within the crash, citing a preliminary evaluation by emergency employees on the scene. The information company additionally quoted medical employees who acknowledged that 4 our bodies had been recovered from the crash to this point.
A complete of 29 survivors, together with two youngsters, have been hospitalized, the ministry informed Russia’s state information company, RIA Novosti, the Related Press reported. Many passengers have but to be accounted for.
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Greater than 30 are feared lifeless following the crash close to the Kazakhstani metropolis of Aktau. (Azamat Sarsenbayev/AP Photograph)
Video of the crash confirmed the airplane descending quickly earlier than bursting into flames because it hit the seashore, and thick black smoke then rising, Reuters reported. Bloodied and bruised passengers could possibly be seen stumbling from a chunk of the fuselage that had remained intact.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who had been touring to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan upon listening to information of the crash, the president’s press service mentioned. Aliyev was as a consequence of attend an off-the-cuff assembly of leaders of the Commonwealth of Impartial States, a bloc of former Soviet nations based after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St. Petersburg.
Emergency crews on the web site of the Azerbaijani airliner crash on Dec. 25, 2024. (Azamat Sarsenbayev/AP Photograph)
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the households of the victims in an announcement on social media.
“It’s with deep disappointment that I specific my condolences to the households of the victims and need a speedy restoration to these injured,” he wrote.
He additionally signed a decree declaring Dec. 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
The airplane was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian metropolis of Grozny within the North Caucasus, the Related Press reviews. (The Administration of Mangystau Area/AP Photograph)
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In an announcement, Azerbaijan Airways mentioned it will preserve members of the general public up to date and altered its social media banners to strong black.
“We ask God for mercy on the passengers and crew members who misplaced their lives,” a translated statement on X said. “Their ache is our ache. We want a speedy restoration to these injured.”
Reuters and the Related Press contributed to this report.
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