Azerbaijani airliner crashes in Kazakhstan, killing 38, officials say

By KATIE MARIE DAVIES and DASHA LITVINOVA

Kazakhstan officials say 38 people have died after an Azerbaijani airliner crashed Wednesday near the Kazakhstan city of Aktau.

Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbaev disclosed the death toll while meeting with Azerbaijani officials, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.

Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general’s office said previously that 32 of the 67 people on board the plane had survived.

The plane crashed while en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard crashed Wednesday near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, leaving at least 32 survivors, according to officials. More than 30 people may be dead.

The Embraer 190 was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.

Preliminary information showed that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird strike led to an emergency on board, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, as saying.

Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry said in a Telegram statement that those onboard included five crew. A total of 29 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalized, the ministry told RIA Novosti.

Another Russian news agency, Interfax, quoted medical workers as saying that four bodies have been recovered and emergency workers at the scene as saying that both pilots died.

The plane crashed while attempting an emergency landing 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Aktau, Azerbaijan Airlines said.

The Prosecutor General’s Office said that the number of 32 survivors wasn’t final, and according to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry some of them were in critical condition. The number of survivors could mean that over 30 people may be dead.

According to Kazakh officials, those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals.

Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball. Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft, lying upside in the grass. The footage corresponded to the plane’s colors and its registration number.

Some of the videos posted on social media showed survivors dragging fellow passengers away from the wreckage.

Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure-right once nearing the airport in Aktau, its altitude moving up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight before impacting the ground.

FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming,” which “made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data,” referring to the information that allows flight-tracking websites to follow planes in flight. Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.

Speaking at a news conference, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said that the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course.

“The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he said.

Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black. It also said that it would suspend flights between Baku and Grozny, as well as between Baku and the city of Makhachkala in Russia’s North Caucasus, until its investigation into the crash has been concluded.

Azerbaijan’s state news agency, Azertac, said that an official delegation of Azerbaijan’s emergency situations minister, the deputy general prosecutor and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines were sent to Aktau to conduct an “on-site investigation.”

Aliyev, who was traveling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan on hearing news of the crash, the president’s press service said. He was due to attend an informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet countries founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St. Petersburg.

Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media. “It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” he wrote.

He also signed a decree declaring Dec. 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Aliyev on the phone and expressed his condolences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Speaking at the CIS meeting in St. Petersburg, Putin also said that Russia’s Emergency Ministry sent a plane with equipment and medical workers to Kazakhstan to assist with the aftermath of the crash.

Kazakhstani, Azerbaijani and Russian authorities said they were investigating the crash. Embraer told The Associated Press in a statement that the company is “ready to assist all relevant authorities.”

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.