Azerbaijan Airlines Plane With 67 On Board Crashes Near Aktau City In Kazakhstan, Bursts Into Flames

A passenger plane from Azerbaijan Airlines burst into flames after crashing near the Aktau city of Kazakhstan, the country’s Emergencies Ministry said.

The Embraer 190 plane was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to Grzony in Russia’s Chechnya but was rerouted due to fog in Grozny. Sixty-two passengers were onboard the plane along with five crew members. Fourteen people survived the crash and have been taken to the hospital, including five in intensive care.

A video showed the aircraft rapidly losing altitude and started banking to its right. It crashed into an open field and burst into flames.

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1871816067397693527?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The crash took place near the airport. The plane reportedly took several circles, requesting an emergency landing, but it stalled and crashed.

Visuals showed ambulances at the crash site and some people were being rescued and deboarding from the emergency exit located at the rear end of the aircraft. The aircraft registration number, 4K-AZ65, visible in the video matches the data available on FlightRadar24. 

Data from the online flight tracking website, FlightRadar24, showed the aircraft flying over the Caspian Sea and heading towards its destination, in Chechnya. The aircraft entered the territorial borders of Russia and started circling near the airport, requesting an emergency landing. At 6:28 am UTC (11:58 am), the flight crashed near the Caspian Sea shore, a few kilometres away from the airport. FlightRadar24 said the aircraft was exposed to “strong GPS jamming, which made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data.”

https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1871824789519692132?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is an advanced surveillance technology that combines an aircraft’s positioning source, aircraft avionics, and ground infrastructure to create an accurate surveillance interface between aircraft and Air Traffic Control.

Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the Embraer 190 had “made an emergency landing” around three kilometres from Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, news agency AFP reported.

More details to follow.