New Delhi:
Thirty-two folks survived the preliminary impression of a aircraft crash in Kazakhstan’s Aqtau metropolis Wednesday afternoon. Twenty-two, together with a 11-year-old woman and a 16-year-old teen, have been hospitalised.
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergencies mentioned there have been a minimum of 30 confirmed deaths. The aircraft – an Azerbaijan Airlines jet carrying 62 passengers and 5 crew – was flying from Baku to Russia’s Grozny.
Fog on the vacation spot brought about it to be re-routed to Aqtau, which is round 1,800 km away. However, because the aircraft approached Aqtau International Airport an (as but) unspecified disaster triggered an emergency touchdown request. Tragically the plane, an Embraer ERJ-190, by no means made it that far.
Initial stories counsel the aircraft was hit by a flock of birds, inflicting a potential steering malfunction and/or damaging one engine. The pilots tried to regain pace and altitude however the controls failed.
It crashed round three km from the airport; horrific movies on social media picked up the aircraft in a nosedive, shedding altitude quickly, slamming into the bottom, and bursting into flames.
READ | Azerbaijani Plane Requested Emergency Landing Before Crashing
The Kazakh Transport Ministry mentioned 37 of the aircraft’s passengers have been from Azerbaijan, six have been from Kazakhstan, three have been from Kyrgyzstan, and 16 have been from Russia.
Among the various movies being shared on-line is one which zooms in on the clearly-struggling aircraft; within the video, posted by BNO News Live, the aircraft seems to jerk up and down mid-air just a few instances, and even appeared to regain management momentarily, gaining altitude, earlier than all of it went horribly incorrect.
In the 36 seconds of the two-and-a-half minute video the aircraft goes right into a steep dive, tilting to its proper because it hits the bottom, bursts into flames, and breaks into items.
This video exhibits what occurred within the minutes earlier than the aircraft crash in Kazakhstan. The aircraft repeatedly went up and down earlier than crashing. pic.twitter.com/dQ0H1c9R0R
— BNO News Live (@BNODesk) December 25, 2024
The aircraft’s course on on-line flight monitoring web site Flight Radar confirmed it crossing the Caspian Sea, veering from its regular route after which circling over the world the place it will definitely crashed.
Pictures from the crash website revealed a horrific scene – items of the fuselage and tail have been scattered throughout a distant and dusty discipline distinguished by a dust street zig-zagging by way of it.
A video shared by Kazakh’s ORDA information company confirmed some survivors being helped out from underneath the wreckage; one shot confirmed an aged man stumbling away with blood on his head, whereas one other confirmed a younger lady in a white coat wandering across the wreckage in obvious shock.
In the identical video a younger boy – his jacket stained with blood and filth – is helped by an emergency companies personnel. Meanwhile, within the distance the opposite half of the aircraft may be seen, nonetheless burning.
The aircraft exploded right into a ball of fireside because it hit the bottom, and that blaze stored burning for some time after the impression. Kazakh emergency personnel lastly managed to place out the fireplace.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev minimize brief a go to to Russia, the place he was as a result of attend a casual summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of former Soviet nations.
Azerbaijan’s First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, who can be the nation’s first Vice President, mentioned she was “deeply saddened by the information of the tragic lack of lives within the aircraft crash close to Aktau”.
With enter from AFP
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