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An Azerbaijan Airlines plane carrying 62 passengers and five crew members crashed during an emergency landing at an airport in Kazakhstan, sending 29 survivors, including two children, to hospital.
Video from local media showed the plane crashing into a vacant lot followed by a massive explosion. Images from the scene showed the passenger crawling out of the back of the plane with the help of emergency personnel.
The passengers and crew were from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Russia’s state news agency Ria reported, citing Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport.
Local media reported that nine of those taken to hospital were in critical condition and search and rescue operations were underway.
The plane, an Embraer 190, was heading from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in the Chechen Republic in southern Russia, but the flight was diverted to Aktau after flying through heavy fog.
Initial media reports suggested that the plane had struck a flock of birds, affecting the aircraft’s controls.
“Due to an emergency situation on board after the collision with a bird, the captain decided to proceed to an alternative airfield, and Aktau was chosen,” Leah news agency reported, citing information from the Russian aviation agency Rosavyatsa. Local media also reported unconfirmed reports that an oxygen cylinder exploded on board the plane, leaving many passengers unconscious.
According to Azerbaijan’s APA news agency, Baku’s president has sent an official delegation to Kazakhstan to investigate the incident. The country’s President Ilham Aliyev left the informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Russia and returned to Baku. He expressed his condolences to those affected by the accident.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin also expressed condolences to the Azerbaijani leader.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased on social media. “We pray to Almighty God for (the survivors’) recovery.”
Photos on social media showed relatives gathered at Grozny airport to wait for news of their loved ones.
A man at Grozny Airport said he had just received a video in which he could see his nephew surviving the crash. “Of course I’m very happy,” he told the Lear correspondent.
