Emergency specialists work at the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet near the western Kazakh city of Aktau on December 25, 2024.
An Embraer passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 62 passengers and five crew on board. According to Kazakh authorities, 28 people survived the crash. Unverified video footage showed the plane bursting into flames as it hit the ground, with bloodied and bruised passengers seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that remained intact.
Kazakhstan’s emergencies ministry said that fire services had put out the blaze and that the survivors, including two children, were being treated at a nearby hospital. The bodies of the dead were being recovered. Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 jet, with flight number J2-8243, was flying from Baku to Grozny, capital of Russia’s Chechnya region, but had been forced to make an emergency landing around 3 km from Aktau in Kazakhstan.
Authorities in Kazakhstan said a government commission had been set up to investigate the crash and its members ordered to fly to the site to ensure that the families of the dead and injured were getting the help they needed. Kazakhstan would cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation, the government said.
Preliminary information suggested that the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike, according to Russia’s aviation watchdog. Following the crash, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was returning home from Russia, where he had been due to attend a summit on Wednesday. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences and said some of those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.