According to Kazakh authorities, there are 29 survivors and 38 dead in the accident that hit the Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku to Grozny near the city of Aktau. As we wrote, the flight J2-8243 of the national airline of Azerbaijan was diverted due to the weather conditions in Grozny, i.e. the dense fog, namely towards Makhachkala before towards the city of Kazakhstan. It already gave emergency signals over the Caspian Sea, and during an emergency landing attempt, it crashed into the ground three kilometers from the Aktau airport with huge flames and smoke.
A total of 72 people – 67 passengers and a crew of five – were on board, which means that the accident could have up to 40 fatalities. The survivors, including two children, are being treated at a nearby hospital. According to data from the Kazakh Ministry of Transport, 37 Azeri, six Kazakh, three Kyrgyz and sixteen Russian citizens were traveling on the plane. In Kazakhstan, a government commission was set up to investigate the tragedy.
A plane belonging to the Azeri national airline crashed during an emergency landing with seventy-two people on board
Although, according to previous official reports, the Embraer ERJ-190A aircraft may have collided with a flock of birds, this was later retracted, the regional directorate of the Kazakh Ministry of Health stated that some (gas) cylinder had exploded on board. The ministry did not provide details.
According to the Flightradar24 air traffic portal, the plane flew over the Caspian Sea, deviating from its prescribed route, and then turned over land before starting the fatal maneuver. The portal later announced that the plane’s progress was hampered by strong GPS signal interference, and it provided incorrect ADS-B data. These data make it possible for air traffic monitoring portals to accurately track the planes. “Russia has been accused several times of interfering with GPS reception in a wider area of its territory” – he announced a Flightradar24.
According to the Azertac state news agency, an official Azeri delegation – including the Minister of Emergency Situations, the Deputy Prosecutor General and the Vice President of AZAL – traveled to Aktau to conduct an on-site investigation.
Due to the incident, the Azeri president ordered a national day of mourning for December 26. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, who was currently in Russia, was supposed to participate in the informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, but returned home immediately due to the disaster. Kazakh President Kashim-Zomart Tokayev also expressed his condolences to Ilham Aliyev and the Azerbaijani people. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov also expressed his condolences and reported that some of the injured who were taken to the hospital are in extremely serious condition.
Source: nepszava.hu
