Plane crash in Kazakhstan left dozens dead but at least 28 survived, officials say

Moscow — An Azerbaijani airliner with dozens on board crashed Wednesday in the western Kazakhstani city of Aktau and Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry said at least 28 people survived and were hospitalized.

The ministry confirmed in a Telegram statement that 67 people, including five crew members, were on the aircraft. The Russian news agency Interfax cited the ministry as saying there may be more survivors.

The Embraer 190 aircraft made an emergency landing some two miles from Aktau, Azerbaijan Airlines said earlier.

Kazakhstan’s Emergency Ministry initially said 25 people survived the crash, later revising that number to 27 and then to 28 as the search and rescue operation continued at the crash site, bringing the possible death toll down.

The plane was originally scheduled to travel from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus.

A spokesperson for Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said preliminary information showed the pilot had chosen to divert to Aktau after a bird strike on the airliner led to “an emergency situation on board.”

Russian news agencies said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny, Reuters said.

Interfax reported that Kazakh authorities said they’d started probing possible causes of the crash, including a technical problem, according to Reuters.  

Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball. Crews put out the blaze at the site, the emergency ministry said.

Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft lying upside in the grass. The footage corresponded to the plane’s colors and its registration number.

Unverified video of the crash showed people stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that remained intact, Reuters reported.  

Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure-right as it neared the airport in Aktau, its altitude moving up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight before impacting the ground.

FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming” which ” made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data,” referring to the information that enables flight-tracking websites to follow planes in flight. Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.

Embraer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday morning. In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black.