An Azerbaijan Airlines plane that was en route to Grozny in Russia’s Chechnya from Baku crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, reports said. Several people are feared to have lost their lives in the plane crash reported in Kazakhstan’s Aktau region.
Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry has confirmed the plane crash, Russian media reports said, adding that the ill-fated Azerbaijan Airlines plane was rerouted due to fog in Grozny.
72 people, including five crew, were on board the plane and at least 25 were taken to hospital alive, Reuters said quoting Kazakhstan officials. Three minors were among the survivors, the news agency added. The death toll is likely to go up as the condition of many survivors is said to be critical, Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry added.
The fire caused by the mishap is yet to be fully doused, reports added.
According to Azerbaijan Airlines, the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, was forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3 km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh city of Aktau. Meanwhile, Russia’s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.
Several videos of the plane accident have surfaced on the internet. THE WEEK couldn’t independently verify the authenticity of these videos which showed a blue-coloured passenger aircraft descending at an unnatural speed before crashing and bursting into flames in an isolated arid area.
Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.
As the news of the crash broke, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev decided to return home from Russia where he had been due to attend a summit on Wednesday, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.