Aktau, Kazakhstan, Dec 25: A passenger plane operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing dozens of people onboard as it attempted an emergency landing near the city of Aktau, local officials confirmed.
The flight, J2-8243, was en route from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, when it was diverted due to poor visibility from fog. The Embraer 190 aircraft, carrying 62 passengers and 5 crew members, crashed approximately 3 kilometers from the city.
Kazakhstan’s emergency ministry reported that at least 25 people survived the crash, though 22 of them were subsequently hospitalized. The majority of passengers were Azerbaijani nationals, but there were also some Russian, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz passengers aboard the flight.
Video footage verified by Reuters shows the aircraft descending rapidly with its landing gear deployed before a large fireball erupted seconds after the attempted landing. Emergency services were seen working to extinguish the flames and rescue survivors from the wreckage in unverified footage from the scene.
The plane caught fire during the landing attempt, and officials said the crash occurred just hours after it took off from Baku at 03:55 GMT. The crash happened at approximately 06:28 GMT, according to flight-tracking data.
Kazakhstan’s government has launched an investigation into the cause of the crash. Embraer, the manufacturer of the aircraft, expressed its willingness to cooperate with authorities. “We are ready to assist all relevant authorities,” the company said in a statement, to BBC.
The crash has sent shockwaves through the international aviation community, and further updates on the investigation are expected in the coming days.
