PLANE CRASHES IN KAZAKHSTAN, 38 DEAD

AN Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard on Wednesday crashed near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, killing 38 people and leaving 29 survivors,  Kazakh officials said.

According to Kazakh officials, those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals.

Kazakhstan Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said 29 survivors, including two children, were pulled from the wreckage near the city of Aktau.

He said of the number of survivors, 11 were in critical condition.

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 was traveling from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in the Russian region of Chechnya before it made an emergency landing approximately three kilometers  from Aktau.

Speaking at a news conference, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said hat it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said that the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course.

Azerbaijan state news agency AZERTAC reported that a search team has located the plane’s black box.

The Kazakhstan government has set up a commission to investigate the cause of the crash and assist passengers’ families.

It said the government will cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation.

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said its teams found the aircraft on fire upon arrival at the scene, with rescue units extinguishing the fire on arrival.

Video of the crash showed the Embraer 190 plane erratically circling the airfield before the crash. As it hit the ground, the aircraft burst into flames, with bloodied passengers emerging from the wreckage shortly after.

FlightRadar24,  in an online post, said  that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming,” which “made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data,” referring to the information that allows flight-tracking websites to follow planes in flight.

According to Russia’s aviation watchdog,  preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.

Azerbaijani state media reported that Aliyev’s government declared a day of national mourning for December 26 following the tragic incident.