It is believed that 67 planes crashed, more than 30 died

On Wednesday, an Azerbaijani plane with 62 passengers and 5 crew members crashed near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, and according to officials, more than 30 people died.

The plane was flying from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.

The Emergencies Ministry of Kazakhstan said in a statement on Telegram that there were 5 crew members on the plane. According to the information provided by the ministry to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, a total of 29 survivors, including two children, were hospitalized.

According to the Russian Interfax news agency, referring to the medical staff, four bodies were removed and the emergency workers at the scene said that according to the preliminary assessment, both pilots died as a result of the accident.

According to the information previously provided by “Azerbaijan Airlines” CJSC, the Embraer 190 plane made an emergency landing 3 kilometers away from the city.

Initially, the Ministry said that 25 people survived the accident, and later, as the search and rescue operation continued at the accident site, it increased this number to 29, and the number of probable deaths decreased.

Later, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Azerbaijan stated that at least 32 people survived, and said that this figure was not final. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan released a statement and said that the condition of some of them is serious.

The number of survivors could mean that more than 30 people could die.

According to information provided by “Azerbaijan Airlines” JSC, 42 Azerbaijani, 16 Russian, 6 Kazakh and 3 Kyrgyz citizens were on board the plane.

The airline is suspending all flights from Baku to Russia’s Chechnya region pending an investigation into the fatal crash, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the company.

Bird strikes, GPS jamming

“RIA Novosti” quoted the Russian civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia as saying that, according to preliminary information, the pilot chose to divert to Aktau after bird strikes on the plane caused an “emergency on board”.

Mobile phone footage circulating online shows the plane making a steep descent before crashing into the ground in a ball of flames. Other images showed part of its body with wings torn off and the rest lying upside down in the grass. The images matched the aircraft’s colors and registration number.

Some videos circulated on social networks showed survivors dragging passengers away from the wreckage of the plane.

Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed that the plane made what appeared to be a right figure as it approached Aktau Airport, its altitude moving up and down significantly before impacting the ground in the final minutes of the flight.

In a separate online post, FlightRadar24 said the plane was experiencing “severe GPS jamming” that “caused the plane to transmit bad ADS-B data,” citing data that allows flight tracking sites to track planes in flight.

Russia has been accused in the past of jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.

In the statement issued by “Azerbaijan Airlines”, it said that it will constantly warn public representatives and changed its banners on social networks to black.

An official delegation consisting of the Minister of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the country and the Vice President of Azerbaijan Airlines JSC was sent to Aktau to conduct an “on-site investigation”.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who visited the Russian city of St. Petersburg, returned to Azerbaijan after hearing the news of the plane crash, the president’s press service said. Aliyev was supposed to attend an informal meeting of the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet countries created after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in his statement on the social network. “With deep sadness, I offer my condolences to the families of the victims and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” he wrote.

He also signed a decree declaring December 26 as a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Aliyev by phone and expressed his condolences.

Speaking at the CIS meeting held in St. Petersburg, Putin also said that the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia sent a plane with equipment and medical personnel to Kazakhstan to eliminate the consequences of the accident.

Both Kazakh and Azerbaijani authorities were investigating the accident. Embraer said in a statement to The Associated Press that the company is “ready to assist all relevant authorities.”