Passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan; at least 32 survive but many feared dead

ASTANA - An Embraer passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Dec 25 with 62 passengers and five crew on board, the Kazakh authorities said, adding that 32 people had survived.

Unverified video of the crash showed the plane, operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke rising. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that remained intact.

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a statement that fire services had put out the blaze and that the survivors, which included two children, were being treated at a nearby hospital. The bodies of the dead were being recovered.

Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, was flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but was forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3km from the Kazakh city of Aktau.

Aktau is on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan and Russia.

Commercial aviation-tracking websites tracked the flight flying north on its scheduled route along the west coast of the sea before its flight path was no longer recorded. It then reappeared on the opposite east coast, where it circled near Aktau airport before crashing into the beach.

The authorities in Kazakhstan said a government commission had been set up to investigate what happened. Its members have been ordered to fly to the site and ensure that the families of the dead and injured were getting the help they needed.

Kazakhstan would cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation, the government said.

Russia’s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the pilot decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences as did Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who decided to return home from Russia where he had been due to attend a summit on Dec 25, his office said.

Mr Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement and said that those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.

[[nid:712800]]