After a passenger plane from the flag carrier crashed in western Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing 38 of the 67 passengers on board, Azerbaijan declared a national day of mourning on Thursday.
Instead of traveling northwest from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, in Chechnya, southern Russia, the Embraer 190 plane took a detour across the Caspian Sea. On Wednesday, it crashed close to the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Sixty-two passengers and five crew members were on board the aircraft, according to Azerbaijan Airlines.
According to the Kazakh emergency situations ministry, “29 survivors, including three children, have been hospitalized,” while Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev informed Russia’s Interfax news agency that 38 people had been murdered.
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan canceled a scheduled trip to Russia for an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a coalition of former Soviet countries, and announced a day of mourning on Thursday.
The president “ordered the prompt initiation of urgent measures to investigate the causes of the disaster,” according to Aliyev’s office.
“I offer my deepest sympathies to the families of those who perished in the collision. and hope the injured get well soon,” Aliyev wrote on social media.
The aircraft’s black box, which records the flight data, has been recovered, according to the Azerbaijan state news agency AZERTAC. The flight radar website showed the plane veering off course, crossing the Caspian Sea, and then circling over the area where it eventually crashed near Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the sea.
The Kazakh transport ministry said the plane was carrying 37 Azerbaijani nationals, six Kazakhs, three Kyrgyzs, and 16 Russian passengers. Azerbaijan Airlines, the nation’s flag carrier, said the aircraft “made an emergency landing” about three kilometers from Aktau, and the Kazakh emergency situations ministry said its employees extinguished a fire that started when the plane crashed.
There were 150 emergency personnel there, according to the report.
Although the cause of the crash was not immediately known, Kazakhstan said that it has launched an investigation.
Prior to retraction, Azerbaijan Airlines claimed that the aircraft had flown through a flock of birds.
In a statement, the prosecutor general’s office in Azerbaijan stated, “At this time, we are unable to disclose any investigation results.”
It further stated, “The required expert analyses are underway, and all potential scenarios are being examined.”
It stated that an investigative team headed by Azerbaijan’s deputy prosecutor general has been sent to Kazakhstan and is currently working at the scene of the crash.
Blood-covered survivors
When the jet crashed, a Kazakh woman told the local Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) station that she was close by and hurried to the scene to assist survivors.
They had blood all on them. They were in tears. The woman, who identified herself as Elmira, stated, “They were calling for help.” They saved some teenagers, she claimed.
Elmira remarked, “I’ll never forget their look, full of pain and despair.”
“Save my mother; my mother is back there,” a girl begged. The Kazakh capital, Astana, is sending a special flight with medical specialists to treat the injured, according to the health ministry.
According to his spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Aliyev over the phone and “expressed his condolences in connection with the crash.”
Later, when he started the summit of CIS leaders in Saint Petersburg, Putin announced that a Russian emergency situations ministry had been dispatched to Aktau with medical staff and other equipment.
Mehriban Aliyeva, the first lady of Azerbaijan and the nation’s first vice president, expressed her sadness over the tragic deaths in the plane crash in Aktau.
“I offer the victims’ families and loved ones my sincerest sympathies. I hope they have patience and strength! She posted on Instagram, “I also wish the injured a speedy recovery.”
“I offer my condolences to the families of the passengers of the Azerbaijan Airlines jet who perished,” Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.
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