Media reports say a passenger plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia has crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan killing four people.
The Azerbaijan Airlines flight, which crashed Wednesday afternoon near Aktau , a city in southwestern Kazakhstan, had 62 passengers and five crew members on board, Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry said in a post on Telegram.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the passengers were 37 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russians, 6 Kazakh citizens, and 3 Kyrgyz citizens, citing the Kazakh Ministry of Transport.
The flight was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya Republic, but was diverted to the Russian city of Makhachkala due to fog, the press service of the Grozny airport told Russian state-run news agency TASS.
The Embraer 190 aircraft reportedly made an emergency landing near the Kazakh city of Aktau.
A statement issued on Telegram by Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, says a preliminary investigation found the plane collided with birds and was diverted to Aktau due to an emergency on board.
Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry initially said 25 people survived the crash, later revising that number to 27, 28, and then 29 as the search and rescue operation continued at the site of the crash.
Russian news agency Interfax cited the ministry as saying that there may be more survivors and quoted medical workers at the scene as saying that four bodies have been recovered.
There was a fire at the crash site but this has been "completely extinguished," Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry said, adding that a total of 150 personnel and 45 units of equipment were involved in the emergency response.
Authorities in Kazakhstan said a government commission had been set up to investigate what had happened and its members ordered to fly to the site and ensure that the families of the dead and injured were getting the help they needed.
