Horror moment plane with 67 onboard crashes in fireball explosion in Kazakhstan with 38 dead in Christmas Day disaster
In a terrible Christmas Day catastrophe that claimed scores of lives, a passenger airliner smashed out of the sky and exploded into a blaze.
As of right now, 38 people have died, and both pilots are believed to have perished.
After reportedly colliding with a flock of birds, the Embraer aircraft is seen in heart-stopping video nosediving before crashing into the earth close to Aktau in western Kazakhstan.
Five crew members and 62 passengers were on board Azerbaijan Airlines’ flight J2-8243.
At least 60 Russian citizens were among them, traveling to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya region, which is ruled by Putin supporter Ramzan Kadyrov.
It broke into multiple pieces during its violent descent and crashed hundreds of kilometers from its intended course on the Caspian Sea coast.
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As they raced to the scene, about 150 emergency personnel had to contend with soaring flames and dense black smoke plumes that rose menacingly into the sky.
At just 2,125 feet over the Caspian Sea, officials said the aircraft, which was traveling from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, sent out a distress signal.
RESCUE EFFORTS
Although 29 individuals were miraculously rescued from the wreckage, according to authorities, seven of them are claimed to be in critical condition.
In a statement, the emergency ministry of the Central Asian nation claimed that firefighters had extinguished the fire and that the survivors were receiving medical attention at a local hospital.
It is thought that two of the hospitalized survivors are females between the ages of eleven and sixteen.
According to the Ministry of Health, hospitals in the area are providing them with all the medical attention they require.
To the scene of the event, 23 ambulance crews were called in.
Three children, ages eleven, sixteen, and seventeen, were on board the aircraft.
Some of them were in serious condition, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan.
Kazakhstani officials reported that 42 citizens of Azerbaijan, 16 citizens of Russia, 6 inhabitants of Kazakhstan, and 3 citizens of Kyrgyzstan were on board the aircraft.
Kanat Bozumbayev, the deputy prime minister of Kazakhstan, stated that none of the survivors are Kazakh citizens.
The last survivor is an unidentified woman who is comatose at the hospital and lacks any documentation; all but one of them have been identified.
The deputy prime minister added that the bodies of those who died in the crash are “in poor condition, mostly burnt, all collected.
“Now they will be in the morgue, and identification will take place.”
SURVIVOR SPEAKS OUT
Bloodied and injured passengers were seen staggering from a portion of the fuselage that had survived, according to footage taken at the incident.
According to survivors, a bird got into the engine of the aircraft, after which an oxygen tank exploded on board .
According to a report, passengers started to lose consciousness.
A video was taken inside the plane by survivor Subkhon Rakhimov who realised there was an issue and sent the clip to his wife.
The passenger who now has a heavily bruised face said: “The flight attendant did her job perfectly, I don’t know if she survived or not, but she did her job perfectly.
“Where there was an oxygen tank explosion, experts will say, only they can say – it happened. But, there was an explosion.”
WHAT CAUSED THE CRASH?
Flight-tracking data fromFlightRadar24.comrevealed that the aircraft made what appeared to be a figure-eight manoeuvre as it approached Aktau airport.
Its altitude fluctuated significantly during the final moments of the flight before crashing.
The cockpit s final, desperate attempt to land in Aktau was captured in horrifying detail.
The aircraft is seen descending too steeply, its nose pointed sharply down, moments before the crash shattered the festive morning.
Witnesses described a deafening explosion as the plane broke apart and burst into flames upon impact.
Images of the flaming wreckage, with emergency services battling to control the inferno, capture the sheer scale of the disaster as charred fragments of the plane lie scattered across the crash site.
Kazaeronavigatsiya,Kazakhstan sair navigation authority, confirmed the emergency declaration, stating: “The Embraer 190 AHY8243 aircraft travelling on the Baku-Grozny route declared an emergency situation due to a collision with a bird and violation of steering control.”
Russia’s aviation watchdog said on Telegram: “Preliminary: after a collision with birds, due to an emergency situation on board, its commander decided to ‘go’ to an alternate airfield – Aktau was chosen.”
But President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has said that it is too soon to determine the cause of the crash.
“The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he said.
An aviation expert has claimed that it is unlikely the crash was caused by a bird strike.
Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory told Reuters that in a bird strike, planes usually land in the nearest available field and do not go hundreds of miles off course.
“You can lose control of the plane, but you don’t fly wildly off course as a consequence,” the aviator said.
Meanwhile, FlightRadar24 reported that the plane experienced severe GPS jamming, which caused it to transmit faulty ADS-B data the information used by flight-tracking websites to monitor planes in real time.
Russia has previously been accused of jamming GPS signals in the region, raising questions about its potential involvement.
The aircraft had already been forced to divert from part of Russia that Moscow has been defending against Ukrainian drone attacks.
SHOT DOWN?
Wall Street Journal reporter Yaroslav Trofimov said speculation by Russian media included that Russian air defences mistook the passenger jet for a Ukrainian drone.
But Russian news agencies have said the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny.
However, numerous holes found in the fuselage suggest that Russia shot down the aircraft, experts have claimed.
Images from the wreckage show what appear to be bullet holes or damage caused by shrapnel which has raised further questions about the true cause of the crash.
Pro-Kremlin media and independent sources have claimed that Russian defences may have targeted the aircraft, according toThe Times.
Russian military analysts from the Conflict Intelligence Team stated on Wednesday that the holes could have been caused by a Pantsir-S1 air defence missile.
It comes after 50 Ukrainian drones were targeting areas of Russia shortly before the incident which may have triggered defences.
Pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Rybar said: “Several drones were shot down over North Ossetia and neighbouring Ingushetia.”
A Kremlin-supporting blogger Yuriy Podolyaka wrote that the aircraft “shows damage consistent with an air defence missile, detonating from the side and above.
“Survivors recall a ‘bang’ during its third foggy landing attempt in Grozny before redirection to Makhachkala.
“It may have been caught in a defence response to an attack on Grozny.”
Aboulafia, the analyst at AeroDynamic Advisory told Reuters: “This does not look like crash damage. This indeed looks like influence from outside.”
Authorities inKazakhstansaid they had begun looking into different possible versions of what had happened, including a technical problem, Russia’s Interfax news agency previously reported.
Kazakhstan has appointed a commission to investigate the plane crash.
“The Commission was instructed to immediately fly to the scene of the accident, ensure a comprehensive investigation into the causes of the crash, and take measures to provide priority assistance to the families of the dead and injured,” the Kazakhstan government said.
Kazakhstan has confirmed that the plane’s black box has been found, per Interfax.
Flights from Baku to Russia’s Chechnya region have been suspended until it is complete, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.
After the crash, the president of Azerbaijan returnd home from Russia where he had been due to attend a summit on Wednesday, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
IN MOURNING
“This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people,” the president said.
Azerbaijan Airlines posted on X: “Today is a tragic day for AZAL.
“We extend our deepest condolences with profound sorrow to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew members who lost their lives in the crash of the Embraer-190 aircraft near the city of Aktau.
“We pray for God’s mercy upon them. Their pain is our pain. We wish a speedy recovery to the injured.”
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement and said those being treated in the hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.
Aktau residents have been asked to donate blood for the survivors.
A woman named Elmira who took part in the rescue effort detailed the horrifying scenes she faced on Radio Free Europe’s Kazakh Service.
“The front (part of the plan) was on fire. We rescued the survivors. Their bodies were covered in blood.
“They were crying. Everyone was asking for help.”
“A little girl came out. She looked at me and said, ‘Save my mom, my mom is still there,” Elmira continued.
“She was crying and begging, ‘Please save her, save her.'”
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Elmira and fellow rescuers worked quickly to help the survivors over to a nearby bus to “prevent people from freezing” while waiting for an ambulance.
December 26 will be a day of mourning in Azerbaijan, the country’s president declared.
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