Emergency specialists work on the crash web site of an Azerbaijan Airways passenger jet close to the western Kazakh metropolis of Aktau on December 25, 2024.
Issa Tazhenbayev | Afp | Getty Photos
An Embraer passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed close to town of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 62 passengers and 5 crew on board, Kazakh authorities introduced, saying 32 survivors had been rescued.
Azerbaijan Airways flight J2-8243 had flown tons of of miles off its scheduled path to crash on the alternative shore of the Caspian Sea, after what Russia’s aviation watchdog stated was an emergency which will have been brought on by a hen strike.
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 previously and the closest Russian airport on the airplane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
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. Bloodied and bruised passengers might be seen stumbling from a chunk of the fuselage that had remained intact.
Reuters was in a position to confirm from seen landmarks that the video was filmed on the Caspian shore close to Aktau.
Kazakhstan’s emergencies ministry stated in an announcement that fireplace companies had put out the blaze and that the survivors, together with two kids, have been being handled at a close-by hospital. The our bodies of the useless have been being recovered.
Azerbaijan Airways stated the Embraer 190 jet was flying from Baku to Grozny, capital of the Chechnya area in southern Russia, however had been pressured to make an emergency touchdown round 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Aktau in Kazakhstan.
“Preliminary: after a collision with birds, on account of an emergency scenario on board, its commander determined to ‘go’ to an alternate airfield – Aktau was chosen,” Russia’s aviation watchdog stated on Telegram.
Aktau is on the alternative shore of the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan and Russia. Business aviation-tracking web sites tracked the flight flying north on its scheduled route alongside the west coast earlier than its flight path was now not recorded. It then reappeared on the east coast, circling close to Aktau airport earlier than crashing into the seashore.
Authorities in two Russian areas adjoining to Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia, reported drone strikes on Wednesday morning.
An official at Makhachkala airport in Russia on the east coast of the Caspian, the airport closest to the place the flight disappeared from monitoring, instructed Reuters it had been closed to incoming site visitors for a number of hours on Wednesday morning. Reuters couldn’t instantly attain officers on the airport in Grozny.
Authorities in Kazakhstan stated a authorities fee had been set as much as examine what had occurred and its members ordered to fly to the location and make sure that the households of the useless and injured have been getting the assistance they wanted.
Kazakhstan would cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation, the federal government stated.
President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences as did Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, who had determined to return residence from Russia the place he had been on account of attend a summit on Wednesday, his workplace stated.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed chief of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in an announcement and stated a few of these being handled in hospital have been in a particularly severe situation and that he and others would pray for his or her speedy restoration.
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