Nearly 40 dead after Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashes in Kazakhstan
The plane had 67 passengers on board, however only 25 have survived, according to Kazakh authorities. Currently, 22 of them are hospitalized.
Images distributed by the authorities of the emergency operation.
A Christmas Day tragedy. An Azerbaijan Airlines jetliner with 67 people on board crashed Wednesday in western Kazakhstan, authorities said, reporting more than 20 survivors.
The aircraft, an Embraer 190, was flying between Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, and Grozny, the capital of the Russian Caucasian republic of Chechnya, according to Azerbaijan Airlines.
The plane crashed near the town of Aktau on the Caspian Sea in western Kazakhstan, the Kazakh Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Telegram.
Kazakh authorities updated data on hospitalized and rescued people throughout the day. At first, the number of rescued passengers was only 25, this figure rose to 40 later in the day.
Azerbaijan Airlines indicated that the aircraft, carrying 62 passengers and five crew members, "made an emergency landing" about 1.8 miles from Aktau.
Among those on board were 37 Azerbaijani nationals, six Kazakhs, three Kyrgyz and 16 Russians, the Kazakh Transport Ministry detailed.
At the moment, the causes of the accident are unknown.
Azerbaijan Airlines initially claimed that the plane had hit a flock of birds, but later deleted this information.
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