More than 30 passengers are dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, and aviation and Ukrainian officials are placing the blame for the deadly crash on Russia, reports say.
The Embraer 190 passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia had 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced. As of Wednesday afternoon, those authorities said there were 38 dead and 29 injured survivors.
Flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. Officials did not immediately explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash came shortly after drone strikes hit southern Russia. Drone activity has shut down airports in the area in the past and the nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
Emergency crews at the site of the Azerbaijani airliner crash on Wednesday. (Azamat Sarsenbayev/AP Photo)
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media.
“It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” he wrote.
Aliyev also signed a decree declaring Dec. 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
The plane was en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus, The Associated Press reports. (The Administration of Mangystau Region/AP Photo)
In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black.
“We ask God for mercy on the passengers and crew members who lost their lives,” a translated statement on X said. “Their pain is our pain. We wish a speedy recovery to those injured.”
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
