An Embraer passenger jet operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near Aktau, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, resulting in 38 fatalities. The plane, en route from Azerbaijan to Russia, deviated hundreds of miles from its planned course before crashing on the Caspian Sea shore. While Russia's aviation watchdog attributed the emergency to a possible bird strike, aviation experts cast doubt on this explanation. The crash occurred amid heightened tensions following Ukrainian drone strikes on southern Russia, though Kyiv has denied targeting the Chechnya region. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan stated that preliminary information suggests the plane changed course due to adverse weather conditions.
ASTANA/TBILISI/BAKU -An Embraer passenger jet crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people, after diverting from an area of Russia that Moscow has recently defended against Ukrainian drone attacks. Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan to Russia to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea , after what Russia 's aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said according to information he had received, the plane changed course due to poor weather, but he added the cause of the crash was unknown and must be fully investigated.Video of the crash showed the plane descending rapidly before bursting into flames as it hit the seashore, and thick black smoke then rising. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.
Kazakhstan's emergencies ministry said in a statement that fire services had put out the blaze and that the survivors, including two children, were being treated at a nearby hospital. The bodies of the dead were being recovered. But a collision with birds typically results in the plane landing in the nearest available field, said Richard Aboulafia, analyst at consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory."You can lose control of the plane, but you don't fly wildly off course as a consequence."
An official at Makhachkala airport in Russia on the west coast of the Caspian, the airport closest to where the flight disappeared from tracking, told Reuters it had been closed to incoming traffic for several hours on Wednesday morning. Reuters could not immediately reach officials at the airport in Grozny.
President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences. Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, had decided to return home from Russia where he had been due to attend a summit on Wednesday, his office said.
Plane Crash Kazakhstan Azerbaijan Airlines Caspian Sea Russia
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