EGN NEWS DESK
An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 individuals onboard crashed Wednesday close to the Kazakhstani metropolis of Aktau, leaving no less than 32 survivors, in accordance with officers. More than 30 individuals could also be dead.
The aircraft was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian metropolis of Grozny within the North Caucasus.
Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry mentioned in a Telegram assertion that these on board included 5 crew. A complete of 29 survivors, together with two kids, have been hospitalized, the ministry instructed Russia’s state information company, RIA Novosti.
Another Russian information company, Interfax quoted medical staff as saying that 4 our bodies have been recovered and emergency staff on the scene as saying that each pilots, in accordance with a preliminary evaluation, died within the crash.
The Embraer 190 plane made an emergency touchdown 3 km from town, Azerbaijan Airlines mentioned earlier.
Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry initially mentioned 25 individuals survived the crash, later revising that quantity to 27, 28, after which 29 because the search and rescue operation continued on the web site of the crash, bringing the supposed demise toll down.
The Prosecutor General’s Office in Azerbaijan later reported that no less than 32 individuals survived the crash, including that the quantity wasn’t ultimate. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry mentioned in an announcement that a few of them had been in important situation.
The variety of survivors might imply that over 30 individuals could also be dead.
According to Kazakhstani officers, these aboard the aircraft included 42 Azerbaijani residents, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani residents, it mentioned.
RIA Novosti quoted Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, as saying that preliminary info confirmed that the pilot had chosen to divert to Kazakhstan’s Aktau after a chicken strike on the plane led to “an emergency state of affairs on board”.
Mobile telephone footage circulating on-line appeared to indicate the plane making a steep descent earlier than smashing into the bottom in a fireball. Other footage confirmed a part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the remainder of the plane, mendacity upside within the grass. The footage corresponded to the aircraft’s colours and its registration quantity.
Some of the movies posted on social media confirmed survivors dragging fellow passengers away from the wreckage of the aircraft.
Flight-tracking knowledge from FlightRadar24.com confirmed the plane making what seemed to be a figure-right as soon as nearing the airport in Aktau, its altitude transferring up and down considerably over the past minutes of the flight earlier than impacting the bottom.
FlightRadar24 individually mentioned in a web based put up that the plane had confronted “sturdy GPS jamming” which ” made the plane transmit unhealthy ADS-B knowledge”, referring to the knowledge that enables flight-tracking web sites to observe planes in flight. Russia has been blamed previously for jamming GPS transmissions within the wider area.
In an announcement, Azerbaijan Airlines mentioned it will hold members of the general public up to date and altered its social media banners to stable black.
Azerbaijan’s state information company, Azertac, mentioned that an official delegation consisting of Azerbaijan’s emergency conditions minister, the nation’s deputy common prosecutor, and the vp of Azerbaijan Airlines had been dispatched to Aktau to conduct an “on-site investigation”.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who had been touring to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan on listening to information of the crash, the president’s press service mentioned. Aliyev was attributable to attend a casual assembly of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet international locations based after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St. Petersburg.
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the households of the victims in an announcement on social media. “It is with deep unhappiness that I specific my condolences to the households of the victims and want a speedy restoration to these injured,” he wrote.
He additionally signed a decree declaring Dec. 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Aliyev on the telephone and expressed his condolences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed reporters.
Speaking on the CIS assembly in St. Petersburg, Putin additionally mentioned that Russia’s Emergency Ministry despatched a aircraft with tools and medical staff to Kazakhstan to help with the aftermath of the crash.
Kazakhstani, Azerbaijani and Russian authorities mentioned they had been investigating the crash. Embraer instructed The Associated Press in an announcement that the corporate is “prepared to help all related authorities.”
