By Kolawole Ojebisi
Officials of an Azerbaijan passenger jet have explained how 35 people feared dead during a crash on Wednesday.
Azerbaijani authorities also confirmed that 32 people survived the crash of the Embraer 190 near the city of Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.
According to the report from the airlines 67 people, comprising 62 passengers and five crew members, were on board when the crash happened.
The report added that the plane was flying from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, on the western shore of the Caspian, to the city of Grozny in Chechnya, southern Russia.
“A plane on the Baku-Grozny route crashed near the city of Aktau. It belongs to Azerbaijan Airlines,” the Kazakh transport ministry said on Telegram.
Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, stated that the plane “made an emergency landing” approximately three kilometres (1.9 miles) from Aktau.
Following this tragic development, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, has declared Thursday a day of national mourning.
Aliyev also cancelled a planned visit to Russia for an informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet nations.
The Kazakh transport ministry said the plane was carrying 37 nationals from Azerbaijan, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan, and 16 from Russia.
The office of Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general stated: “According to available data, 32 people survived the crash.”
“We cannot disclose any investigation results at this time. All possible scenarios are being examined, and the necessary expert analyses are underway,” the statement said.
“An investigative team, led by the deputy prosecutor general of Azerbaijan, has been dispatched to Kazakhstan and is working at the crash site.”
Meanwhile, the Kazakh Emergency Situations Ministry said its staff extinguished a fire that broke out when the plane crashed.
The ministry had earlier reported that “28 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalised.”
It added that 150 emergency workers were at the scene.
The health ministry said a special flight was being sent from the Kazakh capital, Astana, with specialist doctors to treat the injured.
Aliyev’s office stated that the president “ordered the prompt initiation of urgent measures to investigate the causes of the disaster.”
“I extend my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the crash… and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” Aliyev said in a social media post.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation with Aliyev and also “expressed his condolences in connection with the crash,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference.
Putin said that a Russian emergency ministry team had been sent to Aktau with medical personnel and other equipment as he opened the CIS leaders’ meeting in Saint Petersburg.
Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also the country’s first vice president, said she was “deeply saddened by the news of the tragic loss of lives in the plane crash near Aktau.”
“I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. Wishing them strength and patience! I also wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” she said on Instagram.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov expressed condolences on Telegram: “I express my condolences to the relatives of the passengers of the Azerbaijan Airlines jet who died.”
The plane’s course on Flight Radar showed it crossing the Caspian Sea away from its normal route and then circling over the area where it eventually crashed.
