Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash: What we know so far about the tragedy that killed 38

Tracking websites detected the flight flying north on its scheduled route along the west coast before its flight path was no longer recorded

Web Desk

Published: Thu 26 Dec 2024, 12:21 PM

Last updated: Fri 27 Dec 2024, 1:45 PM

On Christmas Day, a passenger plane crashed in western Kazakhstan, near the city of Aktau. Out of 67 people on board the Azerbaijan Airlines flight, 38 died and 29 miraculously survived.

A national day of mourning was declared and condolences came pouring in from across the globe.

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A video of the crash showed the plane descending rapidly before bursting into flames as it hit the seashore, and thick black smoke then rising. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.

Those who saw the plane when it hit the ground couldn't take the scene off their minds.

"They were covered in blood. They were crying. They were calling for help," said a Kazakh woman who rushed to the site to help survivors.

She said they saved some teenagers. "A girl pleaded: 'Save my mother, my mother is back there'," she told a radio show.

The aircraft's black box, which records the flight data, has been recovered, according to Azerbaijan's state news agency Azertac. Details from the log are yet to be available as investigations begin.

Here's what we know so far, based on preliminary findings:

Who was on the flight?

Azerbaijan Airlines reported that 67 people were on board the jet — 62 passengers and five crew members.

Twenty-nine survivors, including three children, have been hospitalised. The bodies of the dead were being recovered.

Where was the plane going?

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 far off course.

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 eastern shore of the sea.

Aktau is on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan and Russia. Commercial aviation-tracking websites tracked the flight flying north on its scheduled route along the west coast before its flight path was no longer recorded. It then reappeared on the east coast, circling near Aktau airport before crashing into the beach.

Azerbaijan Airlines said the plane "made an emergency landing" around 3km from Aktau.

Why did it crash?

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

"Preliminary: after a collision with birds, due to an emergency situation on board, its commander decided to 'go' to an alternate airfield - Aktau was chosen," Russia's aviation watchdog also said on Telegram.

But a collision with birds typically results in the plane landing in the nearest available field, said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory. "You can lose control of the plane, but you don't fly wildly off course as a consequence."

Thee office of Azerbaijan's prosecutor general said they couldn't "disclose any investigation results "at this time".

"All possible scenarios are being examined, and the necessary expert analyses are underway," it added.

It said an investigative team led by the deputy prosecutor general of Azerbaijan has been dispatched to Kazakhstan and is working at the crash site.

Russian airport on flight path was shut

Authorities in two Russian regions adjacent to Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia, reported drone strikes on Wednesday morning.

An official at Makhachkala airport in Russia on the west coast of the Caspian, the airport closest to where the flight disappeared from tracking, told Reuters it had been closed to incoming traffic for several hours on Wednesday morning. Reuters could not immediately reach officials at the airport in Grozny.

Authorities in Kazakhstan said a government commission had been set up to investigate what had happened and its members ordered to fly to the site and ensure that the families of the dead and injured were getting the help they needed.

Kazakhstan would cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation, the government said. Azerbaijan Airlines suspended flights from Baku to Russia's Chechnya region until the investigation is complete, Russia's state Tass news agency reported, citing the company.

(Inputs from AFP, Reuters)

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