ASTANA: An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger flight crashed in western Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 of the 67 persons aboard, according to officials.
The Embraer 190 aircraft was meant to travel northwest from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Chechnya, southern Russia, but instead flew over the Caspian Sea and crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan.
Flight Radar showed the jet flying away from its typical route before hovering over the region where it crashed near Aktau, an oil and gas town on the eastern bank of the Caspian Sea.
“The situation is not very good, 38 dead,” Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev told Russia’s Interfax news agency.
Azerbaijan Airlines confirmed that 67 persons were on board, including 62 passengers and five staff members.
The Kazakh emergency situations ministry said earlier in the day that “28 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalised.”
According to the Kazakh transport ministry, the jet was carrying 37 Azerbaijani nationals, six Kazakhs, three Kyrgyzstanis, and 16 Russians.
“A jet on the Baku-Grozny route crashed near the city of Aktau. “It belongs to Azerbaijan Airlines,” the Kazakh transport ministry stated on Telegram.
