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Azerbaijan mourns 38 dead in plane crash as investigation begins

Posted on by Online Niel
Azerbaijan mourns 38 dead in plane crash as investigation begins

Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning on Thursday after a passenger jet from the flag carrier crashed in western Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

The Embraer 190 aircraft was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia, but instead diverted away from the Caspian Sea. It crashed on Wednesday near the city of Aktau in KAZAKHSTAN.

An investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing, but some aviation and military experts said the plane may have been accidentally shot down by Russian air defense systems while flying over an area where drone activity had been reported Ukrainian.

Officials condemned “speculation” about what happened.

“We have to wait for the end of the investigation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Speaker of the Kazakh Senate Maulen Ashimbayev was quoted by RussiaThe TASS news agency said it was “not possible” to say what might have damaged the plane.

“Real experts are looking at all of this and will draw their own conclusions. None KAZAKHSTANneither Russia nor Azerbaijan, of course, are interested in hiding information, it will be brought to the public,” he said.

But Russian military expert Yuri Podolyaka said the holes seen in the plane’s wreckage were similar to damage caused by an “anti-aircraft missile system”.

“Everything points to it,” he wrote.

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© France 24

Azerbaijan Airlines initially said the plane had flown through a flock of birds before withdrawing the statement.

The airline reported that there were 67 people on board the plane – 62 passengers and five crew members.

Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said 38 people were killed, while the Kazakh Ministry of Emergencies reported that “29 survivors, including three children, were hospitalized.”

Eleven of the injured are in intensive care, the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan announced.

State news agency Azertac reported that 12 of the survivors were flown to Azerbaijan.

Day of mourning

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev declared Thursday a day of mourning and canceled a planned visit to Russia for an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a group of former Soviet nations.

Aliyev’s office said the president “ordered the prompt initiation of urgent measures to investigate the causes of the disaster.”

“I express my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the accident … and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” Aliyev said in a social media post.

The Flight Radar website showed the plane deviating from its normal route, crossing the Caspian Sea and then circling over the area where it eventually crashed near Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the sea’s eastern shore .

Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the plane “made an emergency landing” about three kilometers (1.9 miles) from Aktau.

The Kazakh Ministry of Emergencies said its personnel extinguished a fire that broke out when the plane crashed.

150 emergency workers are said to have attended the scene.

Kazakhstan said the plane was carrying 37 Azeri, six Kazakh, three Kyrgyz and 16 Russian passengers.

Bloodied survivors

A woman from Kazakhstan told the local Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) affiliate that she was near where the plane crashed and rushed to the scene to help survivors.

“They were covered in blood. They were crying. They were calling for help,” said the woman, who gave her name as Elmira.

She said they rescued several teenagers.

“I will never forget their look, full of pain and hopelessness,” said Elmira. “One girl pleaded, ‘Save my mother, my mother is back there.’

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation with Aliyev and “expressed his condolences over the accident,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference.

A Russian emergency ministry has been sent to Aktau with medical personnel and other equipment, Putin said later as he opened a meeting of CIS leaders in St. Petersburg.

Azerbaijan’s first lady, Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also the country’s first vice president, said she was “deeply saddened by the news of the tragic loss of human life in the plane crash near Aktau.”

“My sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. I wish them strength and patience! I also wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” she said on Instagram.

(AFP)