There were 67 people on board the Azerbaijan Airlines plane, including 62 passengers and 5 crew members. The passengers on board included 37 citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 of Russia, 6 of Kazakhstan and 3 of Kyrgyzstan. The initial cause of the incident is said to be the collision of a bird with the plane.
38 people have died in the accident of an Embraer 190 passenger plane going from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Gronji in Russia near Aktau city of Kazakhstan. There were 67 passengers including the crew on board the plane. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has announced national mourning on Thursday in honor of the dead. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday signed an official order to observe a day of mourning following the tragedy.
President Ilham Aliyev has expressed deep condolences over the plane crash. According to government sources, Aliyev learned of the crash while he was in Russian airspace en route to St. Petersburg. He was going there for a summit. On receiving information about the accident, he ordered his plane to return to the country.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 crashed near Aktau airport in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. According to the report of news agency Xinhua, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) has confirmed the survival of 28 people, while 38 people have died. There were 67 people on board, including 62 passengers and five crew members, Azerbaijan Airlines said at the time.
Kazakh media said passengers on board the plane included 37 citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 of Russia, six of Kazakhstan and three of Kyrgyzstan. The initial cause of the tragedy is said to be bird collision with the plane. MES dispatched 52 personnel and 11 units of equipment to the scene where the aircraft was on fire. The Embraer 190 aircraft has a capacity of 96 to 114 passengers depending on cabin configuration. The aircraft can fly up to 4,500 km.
According to FlightAware, the plane took off from Baku 11 minutes ahead of schedule and issued an emergency signal while flying over the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijani media reported that the plane was not allowed to land in Grozny due to fog. For this reason it was diverted to Makhachkala and later to Aktau.
Online flight tracking apps showed the plane flying over the Caspian Sea and heading towards its destination in Chechnya. As soon as the plane entered Russia’s territorial limits, it started circling near the airport. He then requested an emergency landing. The plane crashed a few kilometers from the airport at 6.28 am local time.
