The world has been caught by shock again; this time it is because of a plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, claiming the lives of 38 people on Wednesday, Christmas Day.
The Azerbaijan Airlines flight has a total number of 62 passengers on board and five crew members who are from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny, Russia, crashed somewhere close to Aktau in southwestern Kazakhstan.
One of the passengers made a video inside the doomed aircraft before the crash as the pilots sought to land it safely. He sent the recording to his wife as he called on Allah. Watch below:
Another footage of the aircraft from the ground captured it going down and emitting a cloud of smoke and fire as it made impact on the ground.
The video continued with the rescue efforts showing survivors being pulled out of the wreckage and those injured and on the ground. It was not confirmed if the man who recorded the events inside the plane survived or died.
A report that was issued by the Kazakh Emergencies Ministry stated that 29 people survived the crash with two lucky children.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Kanat Bozumbayev, mentioned that the bodies of those who died at the scene were “mostly burnt” and ferried to a morgue for proper identification. Russia’s Transport Ministry also reported the passengers’ origin as 16 Russians, 37 Azerbaijani citizens, six Kazakhs, and three Kyrgyz nationals.
A preliminary investigation that was conducted by Russia’s Rosaviatsia suggested that the Embraer 190 aircraft was diverted to Makhachkala, Russia, because of fog but tried to make an emergency landing close to Aktau after the plane collided with birds. Another report claims that one of the oxygen tanks inside the plane exploded.
The tail section of the crashed plane was riddled with what social media comments erroneously thought were bullet holes. However, unconfirmed reports suggest it could be shrapnel from the engine from crushing the birds in midair or the likely explosion as the other version says.
A total of 150 responders and 45 units of equipment were used to quench the fire at the crash location. The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, declared Thursday, December 26, a day of mourning across the nation while leaders from Chechnya and Russia expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
