Authorities said a passenger plane with 67 people on board crashed near the city of Aktau, killing at least 38 people.
At least 38 people were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau.
The plane, carrying 62 passengers and five crew members, crashed on Wednesday after being forced to make an emergency landing about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Aktau.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozunbayev as saying, “The situation is not very good and 38 people have died.”
The Embraer 190 was on its way from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, a Russian city in the North Caucasus.
Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office earlier announced that 32 of the 67 passengers and crew on board survived.
“We are unable to disclose the findings of our investigation at this time. All possible scenarios are being considered and the necessary expert analysis is underway,” it said in a statement.
“An investigation team led by Azerbaijan’s deputy prosecutor general has been sent to Kazakhstan and is working at the crash site.”
Azerbaijan Airlines announced it would suspend all flights from Baku to Russia’s Chechnya region until the investigation is completed, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported.
“Preliminary reports indicate that the plane had requested to land at another airport before the accident due to heavy fog in Grozny,” Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova reported from Moscow.
Shapovalova added that the plane’s passengers also included nationals of Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The airline has set up a hotline for families of passengers.
Russia’s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggests the pilots decided to make an emergency landing after receiving a bird strike. Aktau is located on the opposite coast of the Caspian Sea between Azerbaijan and Russia.
Kazakh authorities announced that a government commission would investigate the crash and that members had been ordered to fly to the scene to ensure that the families of the dead and injured received the assistance they needed.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has canceled a trip to Russia where he was scheduled to attend a summit on Wednesday.
“We deeply sympathize with those who lost relatives and friends in this plane crash and wish those who managed to survive a speedy recovery,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov also expressed his condolences in a statement.
