Dozens survive Kazakhstan passenger plane crash
Dozens of passengers have survived a plane crash in Kazakhstan that involved an aircraft carrying 67 people, according to local officials.
Kazakh authorities reported that 38 individuals lost their lives in the incident.
The plane, which was en route to Grozny, Russia, had been diverted due to fog, the airline told the BBC. The Kremlin stated on Thursday that it would refrain from speculating about the cause of the crash until the investigation is complete.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 caught fire while attempting an emergency landing near the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Footage shows the aircraft descending rapidly with its landing gear deployed before bursting into flames upon landing.
The airline confirmed the plane “made an emergency landing” approximately 3 km (1.9 miles) from Aktau.
The flight had departed from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, at 03:55 GMT on Wednesday and crashed around 06:28, according to data from flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
Unconfirmed reports from Russian media suggested the aircraft might have collided with a flock of birds before the crash.
Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general stated that “all possible scenarios” were under investigation, and President Ilham Aliyev emphasized it was too early to draw any conclusions.
Air defense experts have speculated that damage patterns inside and outside the aircraft could indicate interference from Russian air defense systems active in Grozny as a potential cause of the crash.
“It looks very much like the detonation of an air defence missile to the rear and to the left of the aircraft, if you look at the pattern of shrapnel that we see,” Justin Crump of risk advisory company Sibylline told BBC Radio 4.
Azerbaijan Airlines announced the suspension of flights between Baku and the Russian cities of Grozny and Makhachkala while investigations into the crash are underway.
Officials confirmed that the plane’s flight data recorder has been recovered.
Most passengers on board were Azerbaijani nationals, along with individuals from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Among the victims was a woman traveling to Chechnya, where Grozny is the capital, to spend the holidays with her children. Another passenger, a mother carrying medical tests for her sick child, remains missing.
A young woman shared her anguish with the BBC’s Azerbaijani service, recounting her efforts to learn the fate of her father, who was on the flight. While her brother, who survived the crash, managed to contact her, there has been no news about their father.
Unverified video footage captured survivors crawling from the wreckage, some bearing visible injuries.
Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have initiated investigations into the incident. Embraer, the Brazilian manufacturer of the aircraft, stated it is “ready to assist all relevant authorities.”
The BBC has reached out to Azerbaijan Airlines for a statement.
Embraer, a smaller competitor to Boeing and Airbus, is known for its strong safety record.