Last Updated:
An oxygen tank exploded and people fell unconscious moments before the plane crashed.
A drone view shows emergency specialists working at the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan. (IMAGE: REUTERS)
An oxygen tank exploded inside the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet which crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan with 67 people on board, Kazakh media outlets reported. They also said that flyers also started to fall unconscious before the flight crashed.
Kazakh authorities said 28 people had survived the crash of the Embraer 190, which veered from its scheduled route, near the city of Aktau.
The plane was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on the western shore of the Caspian to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev cut short a visit to Russia where he had been due to attend an informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of former Soviet nations, his office said in a statement.
“A plane doing 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, said the plane had 62 passengers and five crew on board.
It said the plane “made an emergency landing” around three kilometres (1.9 miles) from Aktau.
- Location :
Astana, Kazakhstan