An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane crashed in western Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Officials said that the accident occurred after the plane skidded off the road after being unable to reach its intended destination due to strong winds.
Kazakh officials say the Embraer 190 plane, flying from Baku to Grozny, Russia, crashed near the city of Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Kazakh officials said that “more than 30 passengers on board the plane may have died. The death toll has not yet been officially confirmed.”
There were 62 passengers and five crew members on board the plane, and 28 people were rescued alive and sent to the hospital for treatment. The plane was flying from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the city of Grozny in Chechnya, southern Russia, on the western bank of the Caspian River.
Following the plane crash, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev cut short a visit to Russia to attend an informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a group of former Soviet nations, according to a statement issued by his office.
“A plane flying on the Baku-Grozny route crashed near the city of Aktau. It belongs to Azerbaijan Airlines,” Kazakhstan’s Transport Ministry said in a telegram. According to Azerbaijan’s national flag carrier, the plane was carrying 62 passengers and five crew members. The plane reportedly made an ’emergency landing’ about three kilometers from Aktau.
The plane was carrying 37 people from Azerbaijan, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan, and 16 from Russia, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said its staff had brought the fire that broke out in the plane crash under control. “According to initial information, 28 people, including two children, on board the plane have been hospitalized,” the ministry said. More than 150 trained personnel are at the scene for rescue operations.
The Ministry of Health has stated that a special plane with specialist doctors is being sent from Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, to treat the injured. Aliyev’s office said, “The president has instructed to take immediate steps to determine the cause of the disaster.”
Local health officials had previously reported that 14 injured people had been taken to regional hospitals and five were in intensive care, while local media reported that 25 people on board the plane had been rescued alive and five were in critical condition.
