An Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing more than 30 passengers, reports said, and aviation and Ukrainian officials are blaming Russia for the deadly crash.
Kazakh authorities announced that the Embraer 190 passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia was carrying 62 passengers and five crew members. As of Wednesday afternoon, those officials said there were 38 dead and 29 injured survivors.
Flight J2-8243 flew hundreds of miles off its scheduled path to crash on the opposite coast of the Caspian Sea. Officials did not immediately say why it crossed the ocean, but the accident came on the heels of a spate of drone strikes in southern Russia. Drone activity had closed airports in the region in the past day and the nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
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In this photo taken from a video released by the administration of the Mangystau region, the wreckage of an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the ground near Aktau Airport in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. (Administration of Mangystou region/AP Photo)
Aviation-security firm Osprey Flight Solutions said the flight was “likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system,” The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night.
“The video of the wreckage and the circumstances surrounding the airspace security environment in southwest Russia indicate that the aircraft was hit by some type of antiaircraft fire,” Osprey chief intelligence officer Matt Sacks said in an interview.
Ukrainian national security official Andriy Kovalenko also blamed “Russian air-defense systems” for the crash in an ex-post on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Russia’s aviation watchdog said it was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
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According to Kazakhstani officials, those on board the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, six Kazakhstanis and three Kyrgyzstani citizens.
Both pilots died in the crash, Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing preliminary assessments from emergency workers at the scene. The news agency also quoted medical workers as saying that four bodies have so far been recovered from the accident.
The ministry told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti that survivors had been hospitalized and included two children, the Associated Press reports.
More than 30 people are feared dead after the accident near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. (Azmat Sarsenbayev/AP Photo)
Video of the crash showed the plane descending rapidly before bursting into flames and billowing thick black smoke as it hit the beach, Reuters reported. Bloodied and injured passengers could be seen staggering around on a piece of the plane’s hull that remained intact.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who was on a visit to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan after hearing news of the accident, the presidential press service said. Aliyev was to attend an informal meeting in St. Petersburg of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a group of former Soviet countries established after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Emergency crews at the site of the Azerbaijani plane crash on Wednesday. (Azmat Sarsenbayev/AP Photo)
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media.
“With deep sorrow I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” he wrote.
Aliyev also signed a decree declaring December 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
The plane was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus, the Associated Press reported. (Administration of Mangystou region/AP Photo)
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In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and had changed its social media banners to solid black.
“We pray God has mercy on the passengers and crew members who lost their lives,” a translated statement on the X said. “Their pain is our pain. We wish the injured a speedy recovery.”
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
