29 Survive Azerbaijan Airlines Crash in Kazakhstan While En Route to Chechnya, Including Three Children
There were 67 people on board the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan this morning. Of those, 38 died, while 29 passengers, including three children, survived, Ukrinform reports.
Throughout the day, there was different information about the number of people on board who survived the plane crash. In the evening, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kazakhstan informed that there were 62 passengers and five crew members on board.
The Kazakh government said that an expert examination would be ordered to identify some of the dead.
Among the passengers were 6 Kazakh citizens, 42 Azerbaijani citizens, three Kyrgyz citizens, 16 Russian citizens, and the citizenship of one person is being clarified.
All crew members are citizens of Azerbaijan. According to the Kazakh authorities, two pilots were killed and three crew members survived.
Following the crash, 29 people were hospitalised, including three children.
The Embraer aircraft was flying from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Chechnya, Russia.
The aircraft sent an SOS signal when it was over the Caspian Sea. According to the Grozny airport board, flight J2 8243 from Baku was due to arrive in Chechnya at 8:20 a.m. Moscow time.
According to preliminary reports, due to fog in Grozny, the plane was diverted to Makhachkala and then to Aktau.
‘The ‘black box’ of the airliner has been found and added to the criminal case as material evidence.
The head of the Kazakh Civil Aviation Committee, Talgat Lastayev, said that the plane had requested to enter the airspace of Kazakhstan at 11:02 a.m. local time. Contact with the crew was lost at 11:28, and at 11:37 the plane hit the ground.
The exact cause of the crash is currently unknown. Azerbaijan Airlines reported that, according to preliminary information, the incident was caused by a collision with birds.
Kazakhstani media, citing the Mangistau Oblast Health Department, reported that an explosion could have occurred on board. The survivors of the crash also speak of an explosion. Pictures and videos from the crash site posted online show holes in the skin of the aircraft, their origin is unclear.