Azerbaijan Observes National Mourning Following Air Disaster
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Baku, Dec 25 (NationPress) Azerbaijan has proclaimed Thursday as a national day of mourning for the victims of the devastating crash of an Embraer 190 passenger aircraft that was on a Baku-Grozny flight.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev issued an official decree to observe this day of mourning following the tragic incident on Wednesday.
At the time, Aliyev was traversing Russia's airspace on his way to St. Petersburg for a summit, but he commanded his flight to return immediately upon receiving news of the accident.
The flight, designated as J2-8243, crashed in proximity to Aktau Airport in Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) reported 28 survivors, and rescue operations are currently in progress.
There were a total of 67 individuals onboard, comprised of 62 passengers and 5 crew members, as per Azerbaijan Airlines on X, with reports from Xinhua news agency.
According to Kazakh media, the passengers included 37 from Azerbaijan, 16 from Russia, 6 from Kazakhstan, and 3 from Kyrgyzstan.
Preliminary investigations suggest that a bird strike may have initiated the disaster.
The MES deployed 52 personnel along with 11 pieces of equipment to the crash site, where the aircraft was reported to be ablaze.
The Embraer 190 is engineered to accommodate between 96 and 114 passengers, based on its cabin layout, and has a flying range of up to 4,500 km.
As reported by FlightAware, the aircraft departed from Baku 11 minutes ahead of schedule and sent out an emergency signal while over the Caspian Sea.
Local media in Azerbaijan indicated that the plane was unable to secure landing clearance in Grozny due to fog, which caused it to divert to Makhachkala and subsequently to Aktau.
Online flight tracking applications documented the aircraft navigating over the Caspian Sea towards its intended destination in Chechnya. Upon entering Russian airspace, it began circling near the airport and requested an emergency landing.
At 6:28 am local time, the plane crashed just a few kilometers away from the airport.
As reported by FlightRadar24, the aircraft faced severe GPS jamming that resulted in erroneous ADS-B data being transmitted.
Azerbaijan Airlines has promised to provide further information, while local authorities and emergency services continue their investigation into the crash.
