ASIATODAY.ID, MOSCOW – As many as 38 people were declared dead in the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) plane crash near Aktau City, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, December 25 2024.
Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev told a press conference in Aktau that 38 people were killed and 29 others had been rescued.
According to AZAL’s statement via Telegram, the Embraer 190 plane carrying 62 passengers and 5 crew members crashed at a location about three kilometers from Aktau.
The plane was en route from the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, to Grozny in the Chechen Republic, Russia.
The airline later suspended flights between Baku and Grozny, as well as flights between Baku and Makhachkala, the capital of Russia’s Republic of Dagestan.
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Response said in a statement that 52 personnel and 11 units of equipment were deployed to the crash site, where the plane caught fire.
The ministry also stated that the number of personnel deployed for search and rescue operations was later increased to 150 people with the support of 45 units of equipment.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who is visiting the city of St. Petersburg, Russia, announced in a meeting with government officials that a commission had been created to investigate the causes of the crash.
“The cause of this accident is not yet known. There are various theories, but I believe it is too early to discuss them. This matter must be thoroughly investigated,” Aliyev said in a statement released by Azerbaijan’s presidential office.
Through a decree, Aliyev also designated December 26 as a day of national mourning.
Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered an investigation led by Bozumbayev into the incident, as well as sending a medical team from the capital Astana to help the survivors.
AZAL told Azerbaijan’s state news agency, Azertac, as well as Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency that initial findings pointed to a collision with a bird as the cause of the crash.
Russian media reported that the plane was unable to land in Grozny due to Ukrainian drone attacks. The pilot then diverted the flight to the city of Makhachkala, but fog conditions forced the pilot to request permission to land in Aktau.
Then on Wednesday, Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Andriy Kovalenko said on Telegram that the plane was allegedly shot down by a Russian air defense system.
“Russia should have closed the airspace in Grozny, but did not do so. The plane was damaged by Russia and redirected to Kazakhstan instead of making an emergency landing in Grozny to save the lives of the passengers,” Kovalenko said. (AT Network)
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