Plane crash in Kazakhstan.
A passenger plane from Baku, Azerbaijan, bound for Grozny, Chechnya, has crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan .
The flight was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, the aircraft was an Embraer 190. There were 69 people on board the aircraft, 64 passengers and five crew members .
There is still uncertainty about the death toll and survivors . In the afternoon, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said that the tragic death toll had risen to at least 38, as quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax. The ministry also revised the number of people on board from 67 to 69, including five crew members . Regional authorities also reported that four bodies had been recovered from the crash site. There are still 40 victims or slightly less, and about ten of the injured are in serious condition. Around 150 firefighters intervened at the crash site to put out the fire.
The nationalities of the passengers: 37 Azerbaijani citizens, 6 Kazakhs, 3 Kyrgyz and 16 Russians.
The cause of the disaster is unclear. The Azerbaijani airline initially reported a collision with a flock of birds, but later retracted this information , and that the plane had made an "emergency landing." The regional department of the Kazakh Ministry of Health instead spoke of a "balloon explosion" on board , without providing further details.
According to the website Flightradar24, which monitors flights in real time, the plane crossed the Caspian Sea, deviating from its normal route, before circling over the area where it later crashed.
Grozny Airport, where the flight was headed, said the plane had been diverted to Makhachkala, Russia, because of fog in the Chechen city. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ordered an investigation into the incident.
(Unioneonline/L)