By Mariya Gordeyeva, Gleb Stolyarov and Nailia Bagirova
ASTANA/TBILISI/BAKU (Reuters) -An Embraer passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed close to town of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 62 passengers and 5 crew on board, Kazakh authorities introduced, saying 32 survivors had been rescued.
Azerbaijan Airways flight J2-8243 had flown lots of of miles off its scheduled path to crash on the other shore of the Caspian Sea, after what Russia’s aviation watchdog stated was an emergency which will have been brought on by a fowl strike.
Officers didn’t instantly clarify why it had crossed the ocean, however the crash got here shortly after drone strikes hit southern Russia. Drone exercise has shut airports within the space up to now and not less than one airport there was closed on Wednesday morning.
Unverified video of the crash confirmed the airplane descending quickly earlier than bursting into flames because it hit the seashore, and thick black smoke then rising. Bloodied and bruised passengers may very well be seen stumbling from a bit of the fuselage that had remained intact.
Kazakhstan’s emergencies ministry stated in a press release that fireside providers had put out the blaze and that the survivors, together with two kids, have been being handled at a close-by hospital. The our bodies of the useless have been being recovered.
Azerbaijan Airways stated the Embraer 190 jet was flying from Baku to Grozny, capital of the Chechnya area in southern Russia, however had been pressured to make an emergency touchdown round 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Aktau in Kazakhstan.
“Preliminary: after a collision with birds, because of an emergency state of affairs on board, its commander determined to ‘go’ to an alternate airfield – Aktau was chosen,” Russia’s aviation watchdog stated on Telegram.
FLIGHT PATH
Aktau is on the other shore of the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan and Russia. Industrial aviation-tracking web sites tracked the flight flying north on its scheduled route alongside the west coast earlier than its flight path was not recorded. It then reappeared on the east coast, circling close to Aktau airport earlier than crashing into the seashore.
Authorities in two Russian areas adjoining to Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia, reported drone strikes on Wednesday morning.
An official at Makhachkala airport in Russia on the east coast of the Caspian, the airport closest to the place the flight disappeared from monitoring, advised Reuters it had been closed to incoming visitors for a number of hours on Wednesday morning. Reuters couldn’t instantly attain officers on the airport in Grozny.
Authorities in Kazakhstan stated a authorities fee had been set as much as examine what had occurred and its members ordered to fly to the location and make sure that the households of the useless and injured have been getting the assistance they wanted.
Kazakhstan would cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation, the federal government stated.
President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences as did Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, who had determined to return dwelling from Russia the place he had been because of attend a summit on Wednesday, his workplace stated.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed chief of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a press release and stated a few of these being handled in hospital have been in a particularly critical situation and that he and others would pray for his or her speedy restoration.
