one Azerbaijani A plane carrying 67 people crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday, killing 38 and leaving 29 alive, a Kazakh official said.
Russian news agency Interfax reported that Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozambayev disclosed the figures during a meeting with Azerbaijani officials.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus when it diverted and attempted an emergency landing 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Oktav.
Speaking at a news conference, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said it was too early to speculate on the cause of the crash, but he said weather had forced the plane to divert from its planned route.
“The information provided to me is that due to deteriorating weather conditions, the plane changed its route between Baku and Grozny and headed for Oktau Airport, where it crashed on landing,” he said.
Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said preliminary information indicated that the pilots turned to Aktau after the bird struck, causing an emergency on board.
The wreckage of an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the ground near the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024.
AP Photo/ Azmat Sarsonbayev
According to the Kazakh authorities, 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyz citizens were on board the plane. Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General's Office had previously said that 32 of the 67 people on board had survived the crash, but told reporters that the number was not final. The Associated Press did not immediately understand the discrepancy between the number of survivors given by Kazakh and Azerbaijani officials.
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Mobile phone footage circulating online shows the plane making a steep descent before hitting the ground in a fireball. Other footage shows parts of its body ripped from the wings and the rest of the plane lying upside down in the grass. The footage matched the aircraft's colors and registration number.
Some videos posted on social media showed survivors dragging fellow passengers from the wreckage.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com shows that the plane makes what appears to be a correct altitude after approaching the airport in Octavia before impacting the ground in the final minutes of the flight. Goes up and down quite a bit.
FlightRadar24 said in a separate online post that the aircraft had experienced “strong GPS jamming,” which caused “the aircraft to transmit corrupted ADS-B data,” citing information that the flight-tracking website had posted. Allows sites to follow aircraft in flight. Russia has been accused in the past of jamming GPS transmissions over a wider region.
Wreckage from an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the ground near the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in this photo taken from a video released by the administration of Mangystau region.
Administration of Mangastau Region by AP
Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and change its social media banners to black. It also said it would suspend flights between Baku and Grozny, as well as between Baku and the Russian North Caucasus city of Makhachkala, until an investigation into the crash is completed.
Azerbaijan's official news agency, Azartek, said an official delegation of Azerbaijan's Minister of Emergencies, Deputy General Prosecutor and Vice President of Azerbaijan Airlines had been sent to Aktau to conduct an “on-the-spot investigation”.
Aliyev, who was traveling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan after hearing the news of the accident, the president's press service said. He was due 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.
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.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Aliyev by phone and expressed his condolences.
Speaking at the CIS summit in St. Petersburg, Putin also said that Russia's Emergencies Ministry had sent a plane with supplies and medical workers to Kazakhstan for post-accident assistance.
Authorities in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia said they were investigating the crash. Embraer told The Associated Press in a statement that the company “stands ready to assist all relevant authorities.”
Associated Press writers Jon Gambrill in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Ada Sultanova in London contributed to this report.
and copy 2024 Canadian Press