World Courant
LONDON — A minimum of 38 folks have been killed and 29 others have been injured after an Azerbaijan Airways passenger aircraft crashed Wednesday morning close to Kazakhstan’s Aktau Airport, near the Caspian Sea, a spokesperson for Kazakhstan’s Emergency Conditions Ministry instructed ABC Information.
The aircraft flew from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia, the Transport Ministry stated in a message on its official Telegram channel. On account of fog in Grozny, the flight was diverted to Aktau in Kazakhstan, Russian information businesses reported.
The Kazakh Emergency Conditions Ministry instructed ABC Information that the aircraft had 69 folks on board: 64 passengers and 5 crew members. The ministry stated 29 folks survived the crash, many hospitalized, together with two youngsters.
Emergency specialists work on the crash website of an Azerbaijan Airways passenger aircraft close to the western Kazakh metropolis of Aktau on December 25, 2024.
Issa Tazhenbayev/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Kazakhstan’s deputy well being minister instructed ABC Information that a few of these taken to hospital are in important situation.
“The checklist of lifeless and injured is being finalized,” the Ministry of Emergency Conditions wrote in a Telegram put up earlier Wednesday.
Preliminary experiences counsel the crash might have been attributable to a hen strike that led to engine failure, necessitating an emergency touchdown try, the Emergency Conditions Ministry spokesman stated.
Nonetheless, at a press convention on Wednesday, officers introduced {that a} legal case had been initiated by the Prosecutor Normal’s Workplace of Azerbaijan concerning the circumstances of the crash.
“At the moment, the investigation course of is underway in cooperation with the Prosecutor’s Workplace of Kazakhstan. All variations are being examined within the legal case,” Farid Huseynov, spokesman for Azerbaijan Airways, stated on the press convention.
On this distribution photograph launched by the Kazakh Emergency Conditions Ministry, emergency specialists work on the crash website of an Azerbaijan Airways passenger aircraft close to the western Kazakh metropolis of Aktau on December 25, 2024.
Handout/Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Conditions/AFP by way of Getty Photos
The passengers included 37 Azerbaijani residents, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan and 16 from Russia, the Transport Ministry stated in a press release, citing “preliminary knowledge.”
“The investigation workforce is being supplied with the mandatory help on the scene of the incident by staff of the Ministry of Emergency Conditions of Kazakhstan,” stated Main Normal Chingis Arinov, Minister of Emergency Conditions of Kazakhstan.
Embraer, the plane producer, launched a press release on the crash, saying: “We’re carefully monitoring the scenario and we stay absolutely dedicated to supporting the related authorities.”
Emergency response groups, together with 432 employees and 79 autos, and 10 canine models have been dispatched to the crash website. Canine groups are concerned within the searches. Rescuers work across the clock and use particular gear, the spokesperson stated.
Investigations are ongoing, with aviation authorities from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia working collectively to find out the precise explanation for the crash, the spokesperson added.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev canceled his deliberate participation in Wednesday’s assembly of the Commonwealth of Impartial States in St. Petersburg, Russia, after the crash, in accordance with a readout of a phone dialog between Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed by the workplace of former.
A drone shot exhibits the crash website of an Azerbaijan Airways passenger aircraft close to the town of Aktau, Kazakhstan, on December 25, 2024.
Azamat Sarsenbayev/Reuters
“The heads of state expressed their condolences to one another, to the kin and family members of those that died within the aircraft crash, together with residents of Azerbaijan, Russia and different international locations, and wished a speedy restoration of the injured,” the textual content stated. stated.
On the assembly in St. Petersburg, Putin instructed attendees that he had despatched a workforce from Russia’s Emergency Conditions Ministry to Aktau “with medical personnel and the mandatory further gear on board.”
Tomek Rolski, Ayesha Ali and Ellie Kaufman of ABC Information contributed to this report.
