Dozens of passengers are feared dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed. Aktau, Kazakhstan On Wednesday, reports say.
The Embraer 190 passenger plane from Azerbaijan to Russia was carrying 62 passengers and five crew members, Kazakh officials announced, adding that 32 survivors had been rescued.
Flight J2-8243 crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea hundreds of miles from its intended course. Authorities did not immediately explain why he crossed the sea, but the accident happened shortly after. Drone strikes South Russia was targeted. Drone activity has shut down airports in the area in the past, and a nearby Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, Russia’s aviation watchdog said it was an emergency that could have been caused by a bird strike.
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42 Azerbaijani citizens were also on board the plane. 16 Russian citizens, Six Kazakh and three Kyrgyz nationals, according to Kazakh authorities.
The Russian news agency Interfax, citing an initial assessment by emergency workers at the scene, said both pilots were killed in the crash. The news agency has also reported with reference to medical workers that four bodies have been recovered from the accident so far.
A total of 29 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalized, the ministry told Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti. Many passengers are yet to be accounted for.
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More than 30 people are feared to have died in this accident that occurred near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. (Uzmat Sarsonbayev/AP Photo)
Video of the crash showed the plane descending rapidly, hitting the beach before bursting into flames, followed by thick black smoke, Reuters reported. Bloodied and injured passengers could be seen stumbling over the one piece of body that was intact.
President’s press service said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who was on a visit to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan after hearing the news of the accident. Aliyev was to attend an informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet states formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St. Petersburg.
Emergency crews at the crash site of an Azerbaijani airliner on December 25, 2024. (Uzmat Sarsonbayev/AP Photo)
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media.
“It is with deep sadness that I offer my condolences to the families of the victims and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” he wrote.
He also signed a decree declaring December 26 as a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
According to the Associated Press report, the plane was traveling from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus. (Mangestau Region Administration/AP Photo)
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In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and change its social media banners to black.
“We pray to God to have mercy on the passengers and crew members who lost their lives.” The statement on X said. “Their pain is our pain. We wish the injured a speedy recovery.”
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.