Dozens of passengers are feared dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, reports said.
The Embraer 190 passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia had 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced, saying 32 survivors had been rescued.
Flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of kilometers off its planned route and crashed on the opposite side of the Caspian Sea. Officials did not immediately explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash occurred shortly after drone strikes hit southern Russia. Drone activity has closed airports in the area in the past, and the nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed Wednesday morning.
Russia’s aviation watchdog, meanwhile, said it was an emergency possibly caused by a bird strike.
More than 30 killed in bus-truck collision in Brazil
According to Kazakhstani officials, 42 Azerbaijani nationals, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyz nationals were on board the plane.
Read on the Fox News app
Russian news agency Interfax reported that both pilots were killed in the crash, citing a preliminary assessment by emergency workers on the scene. The news agency also quoted medical workers as saying that four bodies had been recovered from the crash so far.
A total of 29 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalized, the ministry told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, the Associated Press reported. There are still many passengers to be counted.
Malaysia agrees to resume ‘No Find, No Fee’ hunt for flight MH370, 10 years after plane disappeared
Video of the crash showed the plane descending rapidly before bursting into flames as it hit the coast, and thick black smoke then rose, Reuters reported. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a section of the fuselage that remained intact.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who had traveled to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan when he heard news of the crash, the president’s press service said. Aliyev was due to attend an informal meeting in St. Petersburg of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet countries created after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media.
“It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery for the injured,” he wrote.
He also signed a decree declaring December 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep the public informed and changed its social media banners to solid black.
“We ask God for mercy for the passengers and crew members who lost their lives,” said a translated statement about X. “Their pain is our pain. We wish the injured a speedy recovery.”
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source of original article: Azerbaijan Airlines plane on its way to Russia crashes hundreds of kilometers off course, dozens of people are feared dead
