 "A drone view shows the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan December 25, 2024. Source: REUTERS.")
Many feared dead in a plane crash near Kazakhstan’s Aktau airport on Wednesday. The incident occurred when Azerbaijani airline’s Embraer 190 aircraft with 67 passengers and five crew on board was enroute Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chenchnya, from Azeri capital Baku.
The ill-fated aircraft reportedly requested an emergency landing approximately 3 kms from Aktau after it had been rerouted due to fog in Gronzy. The Kazakh authorities have confirmed 32 survivors from the plane crash.
Why the plane had to make emergency landing?
Russia’s aviation watchdog, in a statement, said that preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.
Kazakhstan’s emergency ministry said that the aircraft, belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines, had circled the airport multiple times before the crash.
32 people survive the crash
Kazakhstan’s emergency ministry said 32 of those onboard the aircraft survived the crash. More than 20 of them were hospitalised for treatment of the injuries suffered during the crash.
“Five are admitted in intensive care,” a report by AFP quoted the health ministry’s regional department saying in a statement.
Videos going viral on social media show the plane, which was operated by Azerbaijan Airlines, bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick black smoke then rising.
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The Kazakhstan emergencies ministry said in a statement that fire services had put out the blaze and that survivors were being treated at a nearby hospital.
The cause of the crash is yet to ascertained with the authorities in Kazakhstan saying that they had begun looking into different possible versions of what could have happened, including a technical problem.