Azerbaijan mourns 38 killed in airplane crash in Kazakhstan
Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning Thursday, a day after a state-owned passenger plane crashed in western Kazakhstan, killing at least 38 people aboard.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who was traveling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan on hearing news of the crash, the president’s press service said.
He was due to attend an informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) — a bloc of former Soviet nations — in St. Petersburg.
Azerbaijan Airlines plane was carrying 62 passengers and 5 crew members when it crashed Wednesday, Kazakhstan’s tranport ministry said in a preliminary report.
The report said 37 of the passengers were Azerbaijan citizens, 16 from Russia, six from Kazakhstan and three from Kyrgyzstan.
Authorities say investigating cause of crash
The Christmas day flight from Baku to the city of Grozny in southern Russia was seen heading to the ground at full speed before bursting into flames on impact.
The plane had also veered hundreds of miles off its original path, raising questions about why that happened.
The closest Russian airport on the flight path was also closed for several hours, with investigators looking into it.
Flight tracking website Flight Radar showed the aircraft circling the airfield in the final minutes before coming down about two miles away from the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan.
29 survivors, including at least two children, were hospitalized following a sprawling rescue operation, according to Russian news service Interfax.
Interfax was quoting Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister, Kanat Bozumbayev, who is in charge of the investigation.
Authorities say too soon to speculate cause behind crash
Speaking at a news conference, Aliyev said that it was too soon to speculate on the cause behind the crash, adding that the weather had forced the plane to change its course according to preliminary reports.
“The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he said.
Russia’s civil aviation authority said that preliminary information showed that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird strike led to an emergency on board.
Azerbaijan Airlines initially said the plane flew through a flock of birds before withdrawing the statement.
“We cannot disclose any investigation results at this time,” the office of Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general said, adding that “all possible scenarios are being examined, and the necessary expert analyses are underway.”
Azerbaijan’s state news agency reported that search teams had located the aircraft’s black box, a tool that records all flight information.
The Kazakhstan goverment has set up a commission to investigate the cause of the crash as well.
Azerbaijani president mourns loss of lives
“I extend my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the crash… and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” Aliyev said in a social media post on Wednesday.
His office said the president had “ordered the prompt initiation of urgent measures to investigate the causes of the disaster.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin “expressed his condolences in connection with the crash” to Aliyev in a phone conversation, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference also Wednesday.
mk/rm (AFP, AP)
