An Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed in western Kazakhstan with 67 people on board, 38 of whom diedaccording to the Kazakh authorities, but the circumstances of the accident are still to be clarified. Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev spoke of “38 deaths” in the evening, according to the Russian Interfax agency. Meanwhile, the country’s Emergencies Ministry, for its part, indicated on Telegram that “29 people have been hospitalized, including three children”. The general prosecutor’s office of Azerbaijan, the Caucasus country from which the plane took off, had previously stated that “32 people survived”, without providing the death toll. According to Azerbaijan Airlines, the Embraer 190 was operating a flight between Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and Grozny, the capital of the Russian Caucasian Republic of Chechnya. According to the company, 62 passengers and five crew members were on board the plane, which “made an emergency landing” about three kilometers from Aktau. In videos published by Russian media, the plane hits the ground and a giant fire immediately breaks out. Other images show the plane on the ground, partially charred, with the front part completely destroyed. The authorities currently believe that “all scenarios are possible” in evaluating what happened and that checks are ongoing. Azerbaijan Airlines initially claimed that the plane had hit a flock of birds, a version that was later withdrawn. However, the Russian civil aviation agency (Rosaviatsia) had also initially spoken of a “collision with birds”, citing “preliminary” information. The regional department of the Kazakh Ministry of Health instead reported, in a statement, of the “explosion of a balloon” on board the plane, without further details. According to the Flightradar24 service, which tracks aircraft movements in real time, the plane crossed the Caspian Sea, deviating from its normal route, before flying over the area where it crashed. The Kazakh Interior Ministry announced the opening of an investigation for “violation of operational and safety regulations of air transport”. “According to initial information, there were 37 Azerbaijani citizens, six Kazakh citizens, three Kyrgyz citizens and 16 Russian citizens on board the plane,” the Kazakh Ministry of Transport also reported. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who arrived in Russia today to participate in the informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) near St. Petersburg, with Vladimir Putin, decided to interrupt his visit and urgently return to Azerbaijan, according to the press service of the Azerbaijani presidency, and declared a day of national mourning in Azerbaijan.
John
John, founder of Odnako, combined his journalism degree with technical expertise to revolutionize global news consumption. Before Odnako's 2011 launch, he gained diverse experience across the media and tech fields, setting a solid foundation for his mission to provide comprehensive, unbiased news. His vision and leadership have since established Odnako as a trusted, innovative news platform worldwide.