ASTANA — An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, officials said.
The Embraer 190 aircraft that was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia instead flew across the Caspian Sea and went down near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
The plane’s course on Flight Radar showed it flying away from its normal route and then circling over the area where it eventually crashed near Aktau, which is an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.
“The situation is not very good, 38 dead,” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev as saying.
Azerbaijan Airlines reported that 67 people were on board — 62 passengers and five crew members.
AN-AFP/Dec 25, 2024