An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people on board crashed yesterday near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, with more than 30 people likely dead, officials said.
The Kazakhstani Ministry of Emergencies said in a statement on Telegram that five crew were among those on board.
At least 29 had been hospitalized, the ministry told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Kazakhstan Emergencies Ministry
Russian news agency Interfax quoted medical workers as saying that four bodies had been recovered and emergency workers at the scene as saying that both pilots, according to a preliminary assessment, died in the crash.
The Embraer 190 aircraft made an emergency landing 3km from the city, Azerbaijan Airlines said earlier.
The ministry initially said that 25 people survived the crash, later revising that number to 27, 28 and then 29 as the search-and-rescue operation continued at the site of the crash, bringing the supposed death toll down.
The Prosecutor General’s Office in Azerbaijan later reported that at least 32 people survived the crash, adding that the number was not final.
The number of survivors could mean that more than 30 people might have died.
The plane was scheduled to travel from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.
According to Azerbaijan Airlines, 37 passengers were Azerbaijani citizens.
There were also 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani citizens, it said.
RIA Novosti quoted Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, as saying that preliminary information showed that the pilot had diverted to Aktau after a bird strike on the aircraft led to “an emergency situation on board.”
Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball.
Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft, lying upside down in the grass.
The footage corresponded to the plane’s colors and its registration number.
Some of the videos posted on social media showed people dragging fellow passengers away from the wreckage of the plane.
Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure eight once nearing the airport in Aktau, its altitude moving up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight before impacting the ground.
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