An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft that was flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed in Kazakhstan near the city of Aktau on Wednesday. It had 62 passengers and five crew members. The Kazakh authorities announced that 32 survivors have been rescued.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 had already diverted from the Baku-Grozny route in the conflict-torn Chechnya, Russia, but the reason for this diversion was an emergency, possibly a bird strike, according to Russia’s aviation watchdog. The plane crashed on the other side of the Caspian Sea.
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Unverified video footage showed the plane going down fast when it burst into flames as it hit the seashore, with thick black smoke rising. The passengers could be seen bloodied and bruised, staggering from a portion of the fuselage that had remained intact.
Kazakhstan’s emergency ministry confirmed that fire services were able to extinguish the fire, and the survivors, including two children, were treated in a nearby hospital. Efforts for the recovery of cadavers still continue.
The flight went off its course along the west coast of the Caspian Sea and was later shown to have re-emerged on the east coast, flying in circles near an Aktau airport before crashing. The news came as authorities in two Russian regions adjacent to Chechnya reported drone strikes early Wednesday that had shut down airports in the area in the past.
An official at the airport from Makhachkala, Russia, confirmed that incoming traffic has been closed for some hours on Wednesday morning. The cause of this crash remains under investigation. A government commission founded in Kazakhstan promises assistance to families of the dead and injured.
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President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan expressed condolences and decided to return to his country from Russia, where he was expected to attend a summit. “He was at home in Chechnya,” the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said in expressions of sympathy, adding that some who had been hospitalized later were in critical condition.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his heartfelt condolences to President Aliyev and the people of Azerbaijan, stating, “Our thoughts are with the families of the deceased, and we wish a swift recovery to the injured. Pakistan stands with Azerbaijan in this hour of grief.”