More than 38 dead in Kazakhstan plane crash: a passenger filmed the interior of the plane during its mad descent

Sylvie Claire / 25 December, 2024

 

An Azerbaijan Airlines airliner crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan, with 67 people on board, the authorities announced. They reported 32 survivors. A previous report put the number of survivors at 28.

  
The aircraft, an Embraer 190, was on a flight from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny, capital of the Russian Caucasian republic of Chechnya, according to Azerbaijan Airlines.
 

It crashed near the town of Aktaou, a Caspian port in western Kazakhstan, according to the Kazakh Ministry of Emergency Situations.
 

“According to available information, 32 people survived” the crash, announced the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office. “We cannot disclose the results of the investigation at this time. All possible scenarios are being examined, and the necessary expert reports are underway”, it stressed.
 

For its part, the Kazakh Ministry of the Interior announced the opening of an investigation for “violation of air transport safety and operating regulations”. According to Azerbaijan Airlines, 62 passengers and five crew members were on board the aircraft, which “made an emergency landing” around three kilometers from Aktaou.
 

According to Russian media reports, a passenger on the flight filmed the interior of the aircraft when he felt it start to descend uncontrollably. He then sent the film to his wife (see X below). In the images, the man can be seen praying as instructions are given over the loudspeakers. The passengers do not seem particularly panicked.
 

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Azerbaijan Airlines initially claimed that the plane had collided with a flock of birds, before withdrawing this information.
 

For its part, the regional department of the Kazakh Ministry of Health reported, in a press release, a “balloon explosion” on board the aircraft, without giving further details.