Why did an Azerbaijan Airline plane crash in Kazakhstan? What we know

Azerbaijan is marking a time of mourning aft a section airline’s rider level crashed disconnected the seashore of the Caspian Sea.

Authorities crossed Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia are investigating the exigency landing connected Wednesday greeting that killed astatine slightest 38 people.

Here’s what we cognize astir the crash.

Where did the rider level crash?

The level crashed astir 3km (1.8 miles) from the metropolis of Aktau successful Kazakhstan, connected the eastbound enactment of the Caspian Sea.

It was en way from Azerbaijan’s superior Baku to Grozny, superior of the Chechnya portion successful confederate Russia.

(Al Jazeera)

Who was connected board?

The Embraer 190 aircraft, formation fig J2-8243, carried 62 passengers and 5 unit members.

According to Kazakh officials, the radical connected committee were citizens of 4 antithetic countries:

• 42 Azerbaijani citizens
• 16 Russian citizens
• 6 Kazakh citizens
• 3 Kyrgyz citizens

How galore of them survived?

There are 32 survivors, including 2 children, who person been hospitalised, with galore successful captious condition. Many were pulled retired from the wreckage, portion some, according to archetypal responders and video footage, dragged themselves out, bloodied.

Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev announced that 38 radical had been killed.

Russian quality bureau Interfax quoted exigency workers astatine the country arsenic saying that some pilots, according to a preliminary assessment, died successful the crash.

Why did the level crash?

The clang was reportedly owed to an “emergency situation” onboard aft a vertebrate strike, Russia’s aviation watchdog said connected Telegram.

The level had to divert from its archetypal way due to the fact that of dense fog successful Grozny, its intended destination, and marque an exigency landing.

Commercial aviation-tracking websites recorded the formation travelling northbound on its scheduled way connected the westbound seashore earlier it disappeared. It aboriginal reappeared connected the eastbound coast, circling adjacent Aktau airdrome earlier yet crashing.

“According to preliminary reports, the level requested landing astatine an alternate airdrome earlier the mishap … owed to dense fog successful Grozny,” Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova reported from Moscow.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said successful a connection that “according to the accusation provided to me, the AZAL hose plane, flying connected the Baku-Grozny route, changed its people owed to worsening upwind conditions and began heading toward Aktau airport, wherever the clang occurred during landing”.

The nearest Russian airport, Makhachkala, was closed earlier successful the time owed to drone activity.

Strong GPS jamming successful the region, which has been linked to past incidents, whitethorn person further analyzable navigation and contributed to the crash, according to an online station by FlightRadar24.

Aliyev acknowledged that determination were aggregate theories implicit what mightiness person caused the crash, but cautioned against speculation.

“There are videos of the level clang disposable successful the media and connected societal networks, and everyone tin ticker them. However, the reasons for the clang are not yet known to us,” the Azerbaijani president said. “There are assorted theories, but I judge it is premature to sermon them.”

What is the latest connected the ground?

Emergency services person been actively responding to the situation.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze caused by the crash, portion 150 exigency workers and aesculapian teams, including specializer doctors flown successful from Astana, are treating the injured.

Azerbaijan Airlines said it is suspending each its flights betwixt Baku and Grozny, arsenic good arsenic Baku and Makhachkala until the probe is concluded.

The hose has besides acceptable up a hotline for household members of the passengers and posted each their names connected its societal media pages.

Aliyev besides signed a decree declaring December 26 a time of mourning successful the country. The Azerbaijani president, who was flying to Russia for a acme astatine the time, said helium was informed of the clang portion helium was successful midair.

“I instantly gave instructions for the level to instrumentality to Baku,” Aliyev said successful a connection issued by his office.

Kazakhstan exigency specialists enactment astatine the clang tract of the Azerbaijan Airlines rider pitchy adjacent the occidental Kazakh metropolis of Aktau [Handout/ Kazakhstan’s Emergency Situations Ministry via AFP]

What investigations are taking place?

Kazakh, Azerbaijani and Russian authorities said they were investigating the crash.

“An investigative team, led by the lawman authoritative wide of Azerbaijan, has been dispatched to Kazakhstan and is moving astatine the clang site,” the Prosecutor General’s Office successful Azerbaijan said successful a statement.

Azerbaijan’s authorities quality agency, Azertac, said that the squad dispatched to Aktau for an “on-site investigation” besides included Azerbaijan’s exigency situations curate and the vice president of Azerbaijan Airlines. Azertac said that the plane’s achromatic container – a formation recorder that investigators usage to find the causes of aviation accidents – had been found.

Aliyev, successful his statement, said that a “criminal lawsuit has been launched” and that the Azerbaijani nationalist would beryllium “regularly informed” astir advancement successful the investigation.

Kazakhstan has formed a authorities committee to analyse the origin of the catastrophe and guarantee that the families of the dormant and injured were getting the assistance they needed.

The investigations are focusing connected imaginable method problems and the closure of adjacent airspace.

Embraer, the Brazilian shaper of the aircraft, has expressed its willingness to assistance with the inquiries.