Moscow — An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people on board crashed in western Kazakhstan near the town of Aktau on Wednesday, killing 38 people and leaving 29 survivors, a Kazakh official said.
Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbaev revealed the figures during a meeting with Azerbaijani officials, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
67 people were on board, including 62 passengers and five crew members. Interfax cited rescue workers at the scene as saying a preliminary assessment showed both pilots died in the crash.
Azamat Sarsenbayev / REUTERS
The Embraer 190 plane attempted to make an emergency landing about three kilometers from Aktau, Azerbaijan Airlines said. A spokesman for Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said preliminary information showed the pilot chose to divert to Aktau after a bird strike led to “an emergency situation on board.” .
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations initially said 25 people had survived the crash, later revising that figure to 27, 28 and then 29 as search and rescue operations continued at the crash site , thus reducing the apparent death toll.
Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office earlier reported that at least 32 people had survived the crash, but said the figure was not final.
According to Kazakh authorities, the plane’s passengers included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyz nationals.
The plane was initially scheduled to travel from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus. Russian news agencies said the plane was diverted due to fog in Grozny, Reuters reported.
Murat Usubali/Anadolu via Getty Images
Interfax reported that Kazakh authorities said they had started investigating possible causes of the accident, including a technical problem, according to Reuters.
Cellphone footage circulating online appears to show the plane making a steep descent before crashing to the ground in a ball of fire. Crews extinguished the fire at the site, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
Other images showed part of its fuselage torn off the wings and the rest of the plane lying upside down in the grass. The images matched the colors of the plane and its registration number.
Some videos posted on social media showed survivors pulling other passengers away from the wrecked plane.
Unverified video showed people tripping over a piece of the fuselage that remained intact, Reuters reported.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the plane doing what appeared to be a good figure as it approached Aktau Airport, with its altitude rising and falling significantly during the final minutes of the flight before to hit the ground.
FlightRadar24 separately said in an online article that the plane encountered “heavy GPS jamming” that “forced the plane to transmit poor ADS-B data,” referring to the information that allows tracking websites flights to follow planes in flight. Russia has been accused in the past of jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.
Embraer did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday morning. In a statement, Azeri Airlines said it would keep members of the public informed and changed its banners on social media to solid black.
