The cockpit recorder has been recovered intact as authorities stepped up their investigation following the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet in Kazakhstan that killed at least 38 of the 67 people aboard on December 25.
Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Qanat Bozymbaev said many of the 38 people who died aboard the Azerbaijan Airlines scheduled flight from Baku to Grozny in Russia’s Chechnya region were not immediately identifiable due to massive burns suffered.
He added the 29 survivors had injuries ranging from moderate to severe, many also suffering from major burns in the crash.
Kazakhstan’s Health Ministry said the injured included at least two children and that 11 people had been placed in intensive care. Some discrepancies remained over casualty figures provided by various authorities.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known amid unconfirmed reports of heavy fog or a possible bird strike. Azerbaijani and Kazakh authorities have launched an investigation, and officials said the airliner’s cockpit recorder had been recovered.
Bozymbaev and Kazakh law-enforcement authorities would conduct the probe of the crash, although he did not suggest any foul play at this time.
In Baku, the prosecutor’s office said that “all possible scenarios are being examined.”
Azerbaijan Airlines said it was suspending all its flights from Baku to the Chechnya region, pending an investigation of the tragedy.
Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted officials as saying the plane, commissioned in 2013, had passed a maintenance check in October and that the pilot had “vast experience,” with more than 15,000 flying hours.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who cut short his visit for an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Russia, said it was too early to determine a cause but suggested bad weather could have contributed to the crash.
“The information provided to me is that the plane changed course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and detoured to the Aqtau airport [before] it crashed,” he said.
Video showed the plane crashing along the coast of the Caspian Sea short of the airport.
In a dramatic account of the incident, Elmira, a witness on the ground, told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service that she was on a company bus near Aqtau with other work colleagues when they saw a plane break up above them and that several people attempted to aid victims following the crash.
“We rushed toward the scene, pulling people out from the tail section, which had separated,” she said.
“The nose of the plane was on fire. We rescued those alive from the back — they were severely injured and crying.”
She said a young girl cried out, “Save my mom! My mom is there!” Others also pleaded for help, she added.
“Ambulances arrived soon after, and we handed the injured over… I am in shock now and cannot get these scenes out of my mind.”
At the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, the families of the passengers of Flight J2-8243 gathered in a designated area, anxiously waiting for news about the fate of their loved ones.
Vugar Ismayilov, whose friend Habib Ismayilov, was on board the plane, told RFE/RL that he hadn’t yet received any news about Habib.
Ismayilov said that Habib, a 25-year-old native of the Aghdash region in central Azerbaijan, had been reluctant to go on this trip, which would take him to Daghestan via Grozny.
“I dropped my friend off at the airport this morning. He was going to Daghestan for work, and it was his first time traveling to Daghestan,” Ismayilov said. “He didn’t really want to go on this trip. He went there because of work.”
Nezaket Bayramova, whose sister Jamila Bisloyeva was among the passengers of the ill-fated aircraft, told the Turan Information Agency that she had no information about her sibling’s situation.
“We called the hotline that was set up [for the relatives], they took our information and said they would inform us. But there is still no news,” Bayramova said.
“I don’t know anything. From what I heard, a bird hit the plane. I don’t know anything else,” she said.
There was a heavy police presence at the Baku airport, where ambulances and emergency crews could also be seen in the vicinity.
Kazakhstan’s Emergencies Ministry said in a statement that rescue teams were at the location of the crash and that fire services had put out a blaze at the site.
Videos from the scene of the crash showed the aircraft lying upside down on the ground with part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the plane.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, but was forced to make an emergency landing approximately three kilometers from Aqtau.
The airline said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black.
A spokesperson for Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency said that preliminary information showed that the pilot had decided to divert to Aqtau after a bird strike on the plane led to “an emergency situation on board.”
Media reports said earlier that the plane had been rerouted due to fog in Grozny.
Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has set up a special commission — led by Deputy Prime Minister Bozymbaev — to investigate the incident.
Toqaev also instructed authorities to send a group of medics from the capital, Astana, to Aqtau to help treat the survivors.
At Aliyev’s instruction, representatives of the Azerbaijani government left for Aqtau, the Azerbaijani Press Agency reported.
The delegation includes the ministers for digital aviation, transport and emergency situations, the deputy health minister, the deputy prosecutor-general, and the deputy director of the State Civil Aviation Agency among others, the news agency added.
Officials said crew members were all Azerbaijani citizens.
Including the crew, there were 42 citizens of Azerbaijan aboard, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan, and 16 Russian nationals, officials said.
