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An Azerbaijan Airlines flight carrying 62 passengers and five crew has crashed while making an emergency landing at a Kazakhstan airport, with 29 survivors, including two children, taken to hospital.
Videos on local media showed the aircraft crashing into an empty field with a large explosion. Images from the scene showed the tail of the fuselage intact, with passengers climbing out aided by emergency workers.
Those aboard were from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Russian state Ria news agency reported, citing Kazakhstan’s transport ministry.
Nine of those taken to hospital are in serious condition, according to Kazakhstan’s Orda news outlet.
Local media said search and rescue operations are under way, citing Kazakhstan’s emergency services.
The plane, an Embraer 190, was travelling to Grozny in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, but was diverted to Aktau after flying into heavy fog, according to local news agencies.
Early media reports suggested that the flight hit a flock of birds, which affected control of the aircraft.
“After a collision with birds, due to an emergency situation on board the aircraft, its commander decided to go to an alternate airfield and Aktau was chosen,” Ria reported, cited Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsia. Local media also shared unconfirmed reports of an explosion of an oxygen canister onboard, leading many passengers to lose consciousness.
Baku has sent an official delegation to Kazakhstan to investigate the incident, Azerbaijan’s APA news agency said. The country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, left an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Russia to return to Baku. He expressed his condolences to affected families.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had also extended his condolences to Azerbaijan’s leader.
Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his condolences to the relatives of the deceased on social media. “We pray to the Almighty for [the survivors’] recovery.”
Photos on social media showed relatives gathering in Grozny airport to hear news of their loved ones.
One man at Grozny airport said he had just received a video in which he could see his nephew, a passenger on the plane, had survived. “Of course I am very happy,” he told a Ria news reporter.
