Russia-bound passenger plane, with sixty-two passengers and five crew members on board, crashed on Wednesday morning near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Embraer E190AR was traveling from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny in Russia’s Chechnya, when it declared an emergency while in flight over the Caspian Sea. The plane crash-landed approximately 3 kilometers (about 2 miles) from Aktau, located on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea.
Official accounts indicate that dense fog in Grozny prevented the plane from landing there, necessitating a diversion to Makhachkala in Russia’s Dagestan. But according to some Russian sources, the aircraft might have altered its course in response to a possible aerial attack on Chechnya, with Grozny being targeted by several drones, leading the city airport to divert incoming flights.
According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, 25 people on board managed to survive the crash. 22 of 25 survivors have been admitted to local hospitals in critical condition.
‘There were 67 people on board the plane, including five crew members. The information about those injured is being clarified. According to preliminary data, there are 25 survivors. Twenty-two have been taken to a hospital,’ the ministry said in the official statement.
The aircraft carried 37 citizens of Azerbaijan, 6 citizens of Kazakhstan, 3 citizens of Kyrgyzstan, and 16 citizens of Russia, Kazakh Ministry of Transport reported.
Emergency response teams with over 150 first responders are actively working at the crash site, the ministry added.
Initial inquiries suggest that the crash was caused by a bird strike. As reported by Kazakhstan’s Department of Health, an oxygen cylinder detonated on the aircraft following the bird strike, resulting in injuries to 14 individuals, among them two children, and leading to some passengers losing consciousness. The explosion is said to have taken place after a malfunction in the aircraft’s engine.
Video recordings of the crash show the passenger jet descending rapidly before it struck the ground and burst in a massive fireball.
The Federal Air Transport Agency of Russia (Rosaviatsia) has released the following statement regarding the incident:
”Today, at about 09:30 Moscow time, near the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, while approaching Aktau Airport in Kazakhstan, an Embraer 190 aircraft of the Azerbaijani airline AZAL collided with the ground. Preliminary information suggests that the aircraft commander declared an emergency following a bird strike and diverted to Aktau as a backup airfield. Emergency services in Kazakhstan are conducting search and rescue operations. Rosaviatsia is in contact with AZAL, and aviation authorities in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.”
The hydraulic system was almost destroyed in a missile attack, aviation experts say. Pilots tried to use a manual backup to compensate for the hydraulic system destroyed. The front part of the plane touched the ground first, killing everyone in the front of the aircraft, and due to this heroic action by the pilots, many lives of passengers in the back of the aircraft were saved.
The pilot found a fairly open and flat terrain to land this aircraft. It also saved the lives of many on the ground.
