At least 38 were killed after the passenger plane crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan. Azerbaijan has declared a day of mourning after a local airline’s passenger plane crashed off the coast of the Caspian Sea.
Authorities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia are investigating the emergency landing on Wednesday morning that killed at least 38 people. The plane crashed about 3km (1.8 miles) from the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.
It was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to Grozny, the capital of the Chechnya region in southern Russia. Russia’s aviation watchdog said on Telegram that the crash was reportedly caused by an “emergency” onboard after a bird strike.
Due to heavy fog in Grozny, its planned destination, the plane had to divert and make an emergency landing on its way. Commercial aviation-tracking websites noted that the flight traveled north along its scheduled route along the West Coast before disappearing. Later, it appeared on the east coast, circling near Aktau airport, before crashing.
According to preliminary reports, the plane requested a landing at an alternative airport before the accident… due to heavy fog in Grozny”, reported Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova from Moscow.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in a statement that “according to the information provided to me, the AZAL airline plane, flying on the Baku-Grozny route, changed its course due to worsening weather conditions and began heading toward Aktau airport, where the crash occurred during landing.”
Following drone activity, the Russian airport nearest to the scene was closed earlier that day. Strong GPS jamming in the area, linked to previous incidents, may have made navigation even more complicated and contributed to the crash, according to an online post by FlightRadar24.
