Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 was scheduled to fly from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grony in Russia’s Chechnya when an emergency occurred. The captain diverted the plane to Aktau, Kazakhstan, over the Caspian Sea, where it crashed.
Conflicting reports are coming from Kazakhstan about the number of deceased, those who survived, and those seriously injured. There have been survivors despite the rather grave-looking videos released of the crash.
You can access Azerbaijan Airlines here.
Azerbaijan Airlines has confirmed that there were 62 passengers + crew members on board.
Here’s what RIA Novosti has reported:
Official comment from Rosaviatsia regarding the crash of the AZAL plane flying to Grozny from Baku.
▪️Today, at about 09:30 Moscow time, in the area of the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, while approaching to land at the Kazakh airport of Aktau, an Embraer 190 aircraft of the Azerbaijani airline AZAL collided with the ground.
▪️The carrier was flying from Baku to Grozny.
▪️Preliminary: after a collision with birds, due to an emergency situation on board the aircraft, its commander decided to “go” to an alternate airfield – Aktau was chosen.
Videos of the crash on X:
https://x.com/clashreport/status/1871814550041039106
Conclusion
We will know in due course what happened here, and you shouldn’t always trust these initial reports.
I am glad that there are survivors, as the images of the crash and from the crash site look rather horrendous.
