In a plane crash involving Azerbaijan Airlines, 39 people lost their lives, while 25 survived, including 22 in critical condition.
The Embraer E190AR was flying from Baku to Grozny, but heavy fog forced the crew to divert to Makhachkala. The aircraft crashed approximately 3 km from Aktau over the Caspian Sea after declaring an emergency due to a bird strike.
The plane carried 62 passengers and 5 crew members. According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport, the passengers included 37 Azerbaijani, 16 Russian, 6 Kazakh, and 3 Kyrgyz citizens. Preliminary investigations suggest that an oxygen cylinder explosion caused a fire and the subsequent aircraft explosion. The pilots attempted an emergency landing, saving the lives of many passengers and people on the ground.
More than 150 rescuers are working at the crash site. The heroic actions of the crew minimized casualties. Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) is collaborating with Kazakh and Azerbaijani authorities to investigate the causes of the crash.
