Dozens killed in Azerbaijan Airways flight crash in Kazakhstan

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An Azerbaijan Airways flight carrying 62 passengers and 5 crew members crashed throughout an emergency touchdown at an airport in Kazakhstan, with 29 survivors, together with two youngsters, taken to hospital.

Movies broadcast to native media confirmed a big explosion after the aircraft crashed into an empty discipline. Pictures from the scene confirmed passengers exiting the tail of the fuselage, helped by rescuers.

These on board got here from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Russian information company Ria reported, citing Kazakhstan’s Transport Ministry.

Native media reported that 9 of these hospitalized have been in critical situation and that search and rescue operations have been underway.

The aircraft, an Embraer 190, was touring to Grozny within the southern Russian republic of Chechnya from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, however was diverted to Aktau after flying into heavy fog.

Preliminary media experiences prompt that the flight had struck a flock of birds, which affected the management of the aircraft.

“After a collision with birds, attributable to an emergency state of affairs on board the aircraft, its commander determined to go to a different airfield and Aktau was chosen,” Ria reported, citing the company Russian Aeronautics Rosaviatsia. Native media additionally shared unconfirmed experiences that an oxygen canister on board had exploded, inflicting many passengers to lose consciousness.

Baku despatched an official delegation to Kazakhstan to research the incident, Azerbaijan’s APA information company mentioned. The nation’s President, Ilham Aliyev, left a casual summit of the Commonwealth of Unbiased States in Russia to return to Baku. He expressed his condolences to the affected households.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned Russian President Vladimir Putin additionally supplied condolences to the Azerbaijani chief.

Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his condolences to the deceased’s kinfolk on social media. “We pray to the Almighty [the survivors’] restoration.”

Images posted on social media confirmed kinfolk gathering at Grozny airport to get information of their family members.

A person at Grozny airport mentioned he had simply acquired a video by which he might see that his nephew, a passenger on the aircraft, had survived. “After all I’m very comfortable,” he instructed a Ria journalist.